First Meeting
by Jess S1
Summary: Drawn to save an innocent while trying to forget her destiny and the tragedies that resulted from it, Buffy makes a new friend in the process. And Charlie learns that there's more to the world than he'd ever imagined. NUMB3RS/BtVS
1. Prologue: First Meeting

**Disclaimers: ****Buffy the Vampire Slayer**** belongs to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy & Fox. ****Numb3rs**** belongs to CBS. (NOT ME!!)  
AN: Hi! I've been trying to think of a crossover for these two series for a while, and though this one may seem a bit unpractical it works... And I find it amusing and I've seen worse, and so have you if you've read even a fraction of the crossovers I've read.**

**Warnings: None that I can think of at the moment, really. Anyone who's read any of my other fan fics knows that updates from me can be few and far between. I always try, but between life in general, and they whims of my muses it's hard. Regardless, if you want to continue reading this, I hope you enjoy it and that you don't have to wait too long for my muses to give me something (really, they're rather irritating!). Enjoy! **

**First Meeting**

By Jess S

_**Prologue: A Late Rescue**_

_**Pasadena, California – Monday, June 3, 1996**_

000381181295019000161591420000156000279523000

Charlie frowned as he looked out at the three pre-teenage girls that were hovering anxiously outside on the doorstep. A part of him was greatly against helping the three, but he couldn't for the life of him imagine why. After another moment's hesitation, Charlie gave into their wide, desperate eyes and sighed, shaking his head and – wanting more than anything to get back to the math problem he'd been working on when the doorbell rang – he waved them in, "Yeah, I guess you can use the phone. Come in, it's right through here," he told them, turning to lead the way into the kitchen.

Not a full second later he was bowled over with a force like that of a freight train, blown clean off his feet and headfirst into the floor as deceptively slender arms warped around his neck and dragged him further into the house, over to the stairs.

"Hungry, are we, Clair?" he heard one of the girls asked with a laugh. Her voice was different from before though, deeper... it almost sounded like she actually growled the words.

"May I, Sire?" he heard the girl that was easily pinning him to the floor ask, her voice also changed to that deep, growling tone.

Charlie struggled, but the girl's grip was unbreakable, brutally bruising and devastating in her unbelievable strength. He managed to tilt his head back enough to look at the other two girls and was more than a little horrified at what he saw.

Gone were the somewhat pretty faces of two young teenagers with long, platinum blonde hair and wide, worried blue eyes. Now their eyes were a dark, orange-yellow color; both eager and blank; wild, like an animal's, and set under formerly smooth foreheads that had become strangely ridged. Their lip gloss covered lips had pulled back to reveal pointed teeth that were currently set in wicked, zealous grins as both girls let out harsh, grating laughs.

"Enjoy," the first girl replied with a smirk to Clair's question before joining the other...creature in looking around the room, slipping some of the nearby valuables into the bag that hung from their shoulders.

One of Clair's arms moved slightly higher but the one that remained about his chest and shoulders still held him firmly in place with ease as she just as easily forced him to tilt his head back and slightly to the side and started to place quick kisses along his neck, almost as though she was searching for something.

Not knowing what was making a surge of desperate fear rush through his system, but reacting to it nonetheless, Charlie choked out, "Please, don'—"

But he was cut off by his own shout of agony as she apparently found the spot she wanted and bit down hard, sending an excruciatingly sharp burst of pain through his body that continued to throb as she started to suck greedily at his throat, rapidly sucking his lifeblood out of his veins.

Each jerky motion he made to try to escape was easily overpowered by the smaller figure's slight grip and sent waves of agony crashing through his body even as his strength rapidly waned and his vision started to darken...

0002216625019000161591420000156000279523000

Buffy sighed as she made her way through the dark streets. She'd gotten off her shift at the diner just a little while ago, around midnight. But she couldn't sleep. _Again_. Much as she wanted to escape Slayerhood, it was well and truly a part of her now; a part that _wouldn't_ be ignored. So here she was, wandering around after one o'clock in the morning. She wasn't sure what her Slayer senses were drawing her to. She wasn't even in the real city anymore. She'd entered the suburban district of '_Pasadena_' – according to the welcoming sign – several minutes ago.

As she turned onto another residential street her eyes sharpened in response to the familiar surge of adrenaline her slay-sense sent through her system while her ears – also suddenly hyper-sensitive – picked up sounds of a struggle not too far down the street.

With another sigh she took off towards the problem, easily closing the distance to the house the noise was coming from in just a few seconds.

There were three vamps there, two of them very young fledglings and the third their not much older Sire. None of them noticed her arrival, as one of the fledglings and the Sire were too focused on rummaging through the living room while the other fledgling fed on the teenage boy that lived there, having apparently given the three an invite into his home. To be fair, not knowing the three were vampires, the boy probably couldn't have imagined that he'd have anything to fear from the three girls that all looked younger than him and were dressed up as cheerleaders to boot!

Taking note of the host's rapidly paling skin and weakening struggles, Buffy didn't even stop to snark at the three undead blondes, instead coming up behind the Sire to quickly stake her from behind and throwing her stake towards the other fledgling as she spun towards them into and into the stake that then pierced her heart. Half a dozen rapid steps brought her over to yank the other vamp away from her victim as she looked up, and a startled expression was permanently fixed on her face as her form crumbled to dust. All was silent for a moment as Buffy paused to let her senses scan the area before deciding it was self to kneel down and check on the victim.

He was on the floor, leaning against the wall by the front door, his breathing labored and his eyes wide with shock. At a quick glance Buffy could see bruises forming along his arms, a slightly bloody bump rising off his forehead and the collar of his red t-shirt darkening from the blood that was still seeping down his neck, through the fingers he'd instinctively pressed up against his neck wound.

"Hey, buddy," Buffy murmured softly as she knelt down next to him, a concerned expression fixed on her face as she asked, "What's your name?"

"Wh-what?" he asked, his voice weak and confused as his slightly-glazed – still-panicked – brown eyes met hers.

"I'm B—Anne. My name's Anne. What's your name?" Buffy repeated, biting back a frown at her own slip up even as she continued to look him over for any more injuries. She didn't usually do this. Normally she either found victims when they were already dead or just as they were caught and were therefore still able to care for themselves. The few times she came across someone who needed medical attention she'd call Giles and he'd always taken care of it. She'd never asked how, just been relieved when she saw the would-be victim back in school a few days later.

000381181295019000161591420000156000279523000

"Ch-Charlie. I'm Charlie, Eppes. Charlie Eppes," Charlie replied shakily while fumbling with the injury on his neck, which he could still feel blood flowing out of far too steadily.

"It's nice to meet you, Charlie," the angel told him, her voice gentle and kind as it drew his attention away from his neck and back to her.

He could barely make out her face, as his vision had started to blur from blood loss, but he thought the angel was rather pretty. As an angel should be. She had golden blonde hair that seemed to almost shine in the dim lighting, and the greenest eyes he'd ever seen.

"…kit nearby?"

Charlie frowned as he realized the angel had asked him a question. "Wh-What?"

"A first aid kit, Charlie. Do you have one?"

"Y-Yeah," Charlie nodded jerkily, wincing as the motion jarred his neck wound and made his curly hair bounce around the bump on his head. "K-Kitchen... th-through th-there," he told her, glancing towards the nearby door after making a quickly aborted effort to point at it with his bloody hand.

"Okay. You jus... here... be… 'ack."

Charlie frowned as the angel started to move away, struggling to try to go after her despite his total lack of any strength whatsoever. He was so weak that even breathing was difficult. And the pain he was still in certainly didn't help.

"Don't move," the angel's sharp rebuke made his movements cease, though the gentler words that followed made him feel a bit better. "I'll be right back."

'_She'll come back... She promised._' Charlie told himself even as the strength he'd apparently been using to hold himself up against the wall failed, causing him to fall further back into the floor, banging his aching head on the wall a bit on the way down.

0002216625019000161591420000156000279523000

Buffy sped through what looked like a dining room and pushed open the door to the kitchen, glancing around before quickly starting to pull open counter drawers. She found the first aid kit in the third drawer she opened, quickly pulling it out and heading to the fridge for a bottle of water and grabbing some paper towels before hurrying back out to the wounded teen again. As she knelt by Charlie's once again, she frowned at his glassy-eyed stare. "Hey. Hey, Charlie, you okay?"

Charlie didn't respond verbally, though his eyes did seem to focus on her face even as weak shivers started to rush through his body.

"_SXXt._" Buffy muttered, as she looked around again, quickly spotting a cell phone sitting on plugged into the wall. She grabbed it, flipping it open to dial 911 even as she grabbed one of the envelopes she saw sitting by it to read the address off it.

"_911 emergen—_"

"I need an ambulance at 874 Hunter Street, Pasadena," Buffy cut in quickly while gently moving Charlie forward so that he could lie his head down on her coat as she rolled it up to place it under him.

"_What is the nature of your emergency, ma'am?_" the female operator's almost monotone reply came.

"I need an ambulance!" Buffy snapped as she pushed Charlie's hands away from his neck to replace them with the towels she'd brought from the kitchen. "My... friend's lost a lot of blood from a neck wound. And I think he has a concussion... and he might be in shock."

"_Okay, an ambulance is on its way, ma'am. As are the LAPD. Can you reach your friend?_"

"Yes."

"_Get him a blanket to keep him warm if you can. Can you do that?_"

"Yeah. What about his neck injury? He's loosing a lot of blood!"

"_Apply pressure to his wound. An ambulance will be there soon. You said he's in shock?_"

"I think so. He told me where his first aid kit was, but now he's staring at nothing... He's still breathing, though."

"_Try to keep him warm and awake, ma'am. The medics will be there soon and I'll stay on the line with you until they get there. Do you know how the injury occurred?_"

"N-No. I was walking and the front door was open. He was laying there clutching his neck. I closed the door and got his kit," Buffy answered, hoping the brief but technically truthful summary would be enough to satisfy the woman and the cops that were on their way here. She didn't know if pointed obliviousness that plagued Sunnydale concerning all things supernatural worked here in LA or not.

"_Okay. Are you and the victim alone?_"

"Y-Yeah. I-I think so. S-Someone else would have h-helped him if they were here, right?"

"…_Yes. Some officers will be there very soon. Don't let anyone in until the officers or the medics arrive, all right?_"

"What if his family comes home?"

"_Do you know where the victim's family is?_"

"No. But there are pictures everywhere here. And this house is too big for one person..."

"_If they return you can let them in, but stay on the line with me and tell them to stay back from the victim, all right?_"

"Okay," Buffy replied, still a little unsurely. She wasn't sure she wanted to be here when the cops got here... but she couldn't just leave Charlie like this either.

"_For the record, ma'am. What is your name?_"

Buffy frowned hesitating a moment before replying. "Anne... My name's Anne O'Connor. Will I need an ID? I don't drive and I was just out walking, so I don't have anything with me." Angel had told her once that he'd paid a witch or warlock some time in the past to enchant his original surname so that he could move through society with it without problems. And that it supposedly still worked well and would for a long time yet.

"_Thank you, Miss O'Connor. Is the victim fully unconscious?_"

"Umm..." glancing at Charlie's unfocused, but still moving eyes she shook her head. "No. He's not really here though, I don't think... Maybe 'cause of the concussion?"

"_Blood loss and shock may also affect that. Is he breathing regularly?_"

"No, but I think that's more because his neck's hurt and he's in pain."

"_That may be. But keep a close eye on his breathing. Can you find his pulse?_"

"Uh, yeah, I could, but my hand's are kind of full. Wh—" flashing lights drew her eyes to the closed front door and she sighed in relief as she heard more than one vehicle pulling up outside.

"_Miss O'Connor?_"

"The ambulance is here, should I open the door?" Buffy asked, relief clear in her voice even as she continued to watch the windows, waiting for someone to knock or just come in.

"_Is the door locked?_"

"I don't think so," Buffy said, frowning toward the doorknob even as she shook her head. "I didn't think to lock it."

"_Then the EMTs should be with you shortly. Just wait for them to come to you. Are the police officers there yet?_"

"_Then just wait a moment for them to come to you. Are the police officers there yet?_"

"There's more than one vehicle, I think, so yeah, I think so," Buffy nodded, before frowning slightly. "I'm gonna hang up now, I kind of need my hands."

"_Wai—_"

Not waiting for the command to be finished, Buffy hit the call 'end' button with another sigh, slipping the phone into her pocket after a moment's thought and gently taking one of Charlie's hands in her own even as she saw a police officer's face looking in through one of the windows and a moment later was surrounded by officers and medics moving about.

For the next few minutes she watched in a daze as the police officers moved around the house – apparently 'securing it' – and the paramedics worked at an almost frantic pace around Charlie, throwing rapid questions at her occasionally after telling her to back away a few steps.

She was pulled out of her daze by one of the paramedic's voices as they finished loading him on a gurney to take him out of the house. "Miss! Miss, are you coming?" Buffy started, looking up at the medics as they continued to move rapidly down the walkway to the waiting ambulance, one turning a few times to look back at her as they did. As they started loading Charlie into the ambulance even as he called out to her again. "Miss! We have to go!"

When she didn't respond right away, one of the officers placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and started to pull her towards the ambulance. "It's all right, Miss. You can go," he told her. "Someone will come into the hospital to question you later."

Still a bit unsure, Buffy glanced at Charlie's face as he was loaded into the ambulance. He apparently wasn't totally gone from shock. He was aware enough of his surrounding to be frightened by the rapid changes – the medic's load voices and the many flashing lights – and his chocolate brown eyes had latched onto hers, apparently seeing her as a point of stability in all the chaos. Of course, a part of him probably knew that she'd just save his life in more ways than one, and that made him trust her...

A part of her knew she should send him to the hospital and disappear. But a larger part of her really didn't want to.

After glancing at the house – empty except for the officers that were canvassing the scene – she glanced at Charlie's frightened face again as she was pulled up into the ambulance, and nodded, moving to Charlie's side and taking his hand again as the ambulance's rear doors slammed shut behind her and the vehicle sped off with its lights flashing, though their siren was silent due to the late – or early – hour and empty streets.

000381181295019000161591420000156000279523000

Charlie frowned in confusion as the EMTs moved around him rapidly, doing who knows what in all this chaos. The ambulance's interior was dark, with some soft lighting for the medics to see by but mostly dominated by the flashing red and blue lights the emergency vehicle was broadcasting around them.

He shouldn't be afraid of an ambulance. Or the hospital. They were taking him there to help him. But he couldn't help it. His parents were on a different continent and his brother was thousands of miles away too.

He could barely see the angel in the darkness, but he knew the small, warm hand that was holding one of his in a gentle, firm grip was hers. He thought the faint smell or roses his nose was catching might be hers too, as she was the only female there.

That scent and that touch were enough reassurance to tell him that he was safe for now. That is was safe for his eyes to close. To rest. So he did.

End of Prologue.

**AN: What'd you think? I've had this story bouncing around in my head a while now, and I'm glad to have started it. **

**Anyway, I'm not sure when updates for this will be, but I can say that this is going to be the start of a series. This part of the series won't be that long. Mostly just covering how Buffy and Charlie met, which if you didn't catch it, takes place in between **_**Buffy**_** Seasons 2 and 3 and years before NUMB3RS Season 1. The next part of the series will probably go through the later seasons of Buffy and a bit after that until the earlier seasons of NUMB3RS, but the timeline for it will be pretty irregular as I'm not turning Charlie into a Scooby and Buffy has to go back to being the Slayer. I'm gonna make a lot of connections and probably hint at a possible relationship for a while. Who knows, they might even actually date on and off. Or not. Will see where my muse goes.**

**Either way, I hope you enjoy it and would love some helpful comments. **

**Bye for now! **

**Jess S**


	2. Chapter 1: A Hellish Place I

**Disclaimers: ****Buffy the Vampire Slayer**** belongs to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy & Fox. ****Numb3rs**** belongs to CBS. (NOT ME!!) **

**Summary: **While struggling to ignore her destiny and forget the tragedies that resulted from it, Buffy is drawn to save an innocent and makes a new friend in the process. And Charlie learns that there's more to the world than he'd ever imagined.

**Warnings:** Umm. None really. I suppose if you don't like reading about stuff they do in hospitals you shouldn't read this... Though that's gotta cut back on the amount of fan fiction you read in general.

**Author's Note: **I should have mentioned in the prologue that I'm playing with the timelines for both series a bit to make them work for my story. I'm probably changing more than I need to, but it helps me write, and shrugs writer's creativity license and all that. I was going to wait till tomorrow to post this, since I still needed to proof-read it last night and was supposed to be helping with the drama department's play from 9AM to 9PM today and tomorrow, but that was canceled for a funeral. Which makes me wonder how we're supposed to be ready for opening night, which is on Halloween, but it's not really my problem. I'm just a lowly volunteer that's doing this for the 10 extra credit it'll add to me grade in Introduction to Theater.

So now I have a lot more time free and I want to post this.

**Enjoy! **

* * *

**First Meeting**

_**Part I in Mathematics & Magic**_

By Jess S

_**Chapter 1: A Hellish Place**_

_**Part I**_

_**Los Angeles, California – Monday, June 3, 1996 – early morning**_

0002216625019000161591420000156000279523000

"Miss, fill these out as quickly as possible, please," a nurse ordered, shoving a clipboard at Buffy before running off down the hall with her co-workers, all gathered around Charlie's gurney as it was run into the surprisingly full ER.

Buffy blinked, looking at the multiple pages of information that she certainly didn't know and back at the nurse's rapidly retreating back. "How am--?" she stopped as sudden inspiration struck, and went rooting through her pockets for the cell phone she'd called 911 on a little while before. After fumbling with it for a few seconds she smiled as the phonebook popped up.

She frowned as she scrolled through the list, coming across a surprising number of doctors in wide range of area codes. Spotting some message paper on a nearby desk she snatched a piece and made her way to take a momentarily empty seat near the ER's entrance and started to make a smaller list of possible contacts and their numbers. She finally ended up with the a list of five numbers:

* * *

_**Dad**_ _Cell_

_**Don**__ Cell_

_**Larry**__ Home_

_**Mom & Dad**__ Home_

_**Mom**__ Cell_

* * *

"Obviously 'Mom and Dad' aren't home," Buffy muttered to herself. "So who's cell? 'Don' and 'Larry' might not be family... Mom's or Dad's?" After another second's thought she scrolled down to '_Mom_' and pressed the green '_Call_' button.

_Ring. Ring. Ring._

"_Charlie? What are you doing up at this hour? It must be...what, two in the morning, now?_" a confused woman's voice inquired.

Buffy licked her lips nervously before asking, "Mrs. Eppes?"

"_Wh—Yes. This is Margaret Eppes. Who is this?_"

"M-My name's B—Anne. My name's Anne. I'm in LA General Hospital with Charlie."

"_Oh my god! What happened?!_"

Buffy took a deep breath, struggling for composure as the woman's panicked tone brought back memories of her last argument with her own mother a few weeks before. "It l-looks like someone broke into your house. I-I was out walking, and... your front door was open. I heard Charlie calling for help, a-and I called an ambulance," she explained quickly, unable to keep her nervousness out of her voice.

It was several long moments before Mrs. Eppes spoke again. Buffy could hear her taking several long, deep breaths to calm herself even as she heard a man's voice asking what was wrong in the background. "_…Thank you for that, dear. What did you say your name was?_"

"Anne, ma'am."

"_Well, thank you very much for your help, Anne. Will you please tell Charlie's doctor that his father and I will be on the first available flight back from Paris?_"

"Y-Yes, ma'am," Buffy nodded, before hurriedly continuing. "They want me to fill out some paperwork for him. Can you help me? I don't want to make him wait for anything."

"_What are—No. Never mind. Yes, I'll help you. One moment,_" she obviously pulled the phone away from her, but Buffy could still hear her ask her husband, "_Alan, call the airport and the front desk. We need to get home right away. Charlie's in the hospital._" Then she was on the phone again, "_All right, dear. Are you ready?_"

Having already seated herself at a table with a pen in hand, Buffy nodded. "Yes, ma'am."

"_Well, Charlie's full name is Dr. Charles Edward Eppes._"

Buffy blinked at the title but wrote it in anyway, "He's a doctor?" she asked, her tone curious.

"_Or mathematics, yes._"

Buffy frowned in slight confusion, but shook her head and forced herself to move on. "Okay, his birth date?"

"_May fifteenth, nineteen-seventy-seven._"

"His social security?" Buffy asked, writing down the response and breezing through most of the following questions with relative ease. Finally closing it with, "And who should I put down for emergency contacts?"

"_Margaret and Alan Eppes. Mother and Father. You have me cell phone number already, from Charlie's cell? Do you have Alan's?_"

"Your husband's? Charlie's 'Dad'?"

"_Yes._"

"Yeah, I do."

"And his brother, _FBI Special Agent Don Eppes._"

"All right. Is his brother nearby? Should I call him?" Buffy offered with a frown as she quickly scanned the paperwork again, to make sure it was complete, starting slightly when she realized she'd made another unusual offer of help. She shook her head at that, reasoning that she probably just felt guilty for not getting there sooner or patrolling more often. It certainly hadn't been easy to keep the Slayer suppressed, but so far she'd handled it. Until tonight. If she'd been able to ignore it tonight Charlie would be dead and those three vamp-hos would still be trolling the town.

"_Oh, would you, dear?_" Mrs. Eppes' thankful response drew Buffy out of her thoughts. "_He's in Washington, D.C., or thereabouts, but he could still fly there much faster than his father and I can. If he's not on an assignment in the field. He works in Fugitive Recovery. I have to pack now – would you mind calling him?_"

"No-No, not at all."

"_Thank you so much, dear. Please call me if anything, anything at all, changes. All right?_"

"I will, Mrs. Eppes."

"_Thank you, Anne. I'll see you in a few hours._"

"Goodbye, Mrs. Eppes. Have a safe flight." With another sigh, Buffy hung up and opened the phonebook again to try the brother's cell phone. She was starting to see why Giles always told her to just drop people off and leave, or better yet disappear when the ambulance arrived.

After several unanswered rings – unsurprising, considering the time – the phone's voicemail picked up. "_Hi, this is Special Agent Don Eppes. I'm not available to take your call right now. Leave a message._"

At the tone Buffy started, a bit nervously. "Umm, hello, Agent Eppes... I'm sorry to bother you, but your mother, Margaret Eppes, asked me to call you and tell you that Charlie's in the hospital. Your brother, Charlie, I mean. I-I think she's hoping you might be able to make it to California sooner than your parents, since they're in Europe...She said you m-might not be able to, if you're working now on case now, so if not that... that's understandable... It's two A.M. right now, and I'm waiting for a report from the doctors at LA General Hospital. If you get this any time soon, feel free to call me back. I don't have my own cell phone, so I'm using your brother's…Goodbye." As she brought the phone away from her ear, she stopped herself just before hitting the 'End' button to bring it back. "Oh! And my name's Anne."

"Miss?" the nurse that had pushed the clipboard at her a few moments ago had returned, an expectant look on her tired face. "Are those papers almost done? We need that information as soon as possible."

"Y-Yeah. Here they are. I had to call his Mom to answer some of them," Buffy told her, hoping to excuse the amount of time it had taken her to fill them out.

The nurse nodded distractedly as she looked the paper's over before looking up with a frown. "His mother? You're not family?"

"N-No." Buffy shook her head, "His parents are in Europe. In Paris. And his brother lives in Washington, D.C. I found him, and called the ambulance. The police said I could come in with him."

"Oh. Are you his girlfriend, then?"

"N—" Buffy blinked, suddenly struck by the realization that if she admitted to not knowing Charlie at all before finding him this evening she probably wouldn't be able to help him anymore. She didn't want that. For one, she'd promised Mrs. Eppes she'd look after him until his parents got here. And two, despite how much she still hated hospitals, a large part of her wanted to make sure he was okay, so she nodded. "Y-Yeah. We're kinda new though."

The nurse nodded, still frowning. "We need to get in touch with his family as soon as possible. Is his brother flying in also?"

"I don't know. I called and left him a voicemail, but he's an FBI Agent, and his Mom said he might not be able to come if he's working now." Buffy shrugged a little helplessly. "She said that they'll be back as soon as possible. But they're in Paris, so it could be a while."

"And if they're flying we won't be able to contact them for an extended period of time... Can you get Mrs. Eppes on the phone again?" The nurse asked, still frowning. "If she gives the hospital permission, you can act as his advocate."

"U-Umm... A-Alright. Give me a second, please," Buffy replied, taking out Charlie's cell phone again, and opening the list of recent phone calls to select 'Mom,' again and hit 'Call.'

As the phone was ringing, the nurse gave her a nod and said, "I'm just going to take these to the doctor. We'll be right back to speak to her."

Buffy nodded, watching her speed away with no little amount of relief as she glanced around to find herself alone with the cell phone at her ear. After a total of four rings, Mrs. Eppes picked up.

"_Hello? Anne?_"

"Yes, Mrs. Eppes, it's me." Buffy replied quickly. "I'm sorry to call you back so soon. But a nurse said the doctor's need to speak to you..."

"_What happened? Is Charlie okay?_"

"I-I think so, they haven't told me otherwise, at least," Buffy replied hesitantly, pausing for a second before continuing. "Umm, I should tell you. I told the nurse that I was Charlie's girlfriend. When she realized I wasn't family I think they would have had to kick me out, a-and I didn't want Charlie to be a-alone here, so when she asked if I was his girlfriend I-I said yes." When Mrs. Eppes didn't respond after a moment's pause, she hurried on. "Th-they said that if you give your permission I can a-act as his, umm, advocate until you get here. I-I'd still call you, of course but—"

Mrs. Eppes cut her off, her voice surprisingly warm and kind. "_That's fine, dear. Thank you again, for doing so much for Charlie... You're sure you're up to this responsibility?_"

"Y-Yes, ma'am. I th-think so." Buffy glanced up as she heard footsteps approaching her again, the familiar ones of the nurse she'd been speaking to and, as she glanced up she saw, an older woman hurrying towards her. "The doctor's here now."

"_Okay, let me talk to him, please._"

"Her," Buffy corrected quietly, before putting a hand over the phone's speaker to talk to the doctor. "I have Mrs. Eppes, Charlie's Mom, on the phone now."

The doctor nodded, accepting the phone from her. "Hello, Mrs. Eppes? I'm Doctor Helgen, the trauma surgeon on duty this evening." She paused for a second, clearly listening, before nodding again. "Yes, Charlie should be fine. He sustained a number of injuries, the worst of which is a mild concussion that we're keeping an eye on, but he also lost quite a bit of blood." Again she paused and then nodded again, this time sighing. "Yes, we need to give him a transfusion, but I'm afraid the hospital is now short on O negative blood and we'll need to either give him O positive or wait for more blood to be shipped here from another hospital." She paused then nodded again, "Yes, I'm afraid we had to do a lot of transfusions this evening and our supply of O negative ran out. There's more on the way. If we give him O positive—"

"Won't that make him sick?" Buffy protested with a frown, shaking her head as the doctor and nurse looked at her. "Since he's O negative? I-I thought you couldn't mix those."

The doctor nodded resignedly, "As Miss – Anne, was it? – just pointed out, we really shouldn't mix O positive blood with O negative. It could make him very ill." She paused for Mrs. Eppes response again, "The problem, Mrs. Eppes, is that your son _needs_ blood. He lost most of his from his injury and may not last much longer, even tied to the IVs and life support we have him on. We don't know how much longer his body can support itself without more blood."

Buffy's frown deepened, and she shook her head. She'd known, of course, that the vamp had taken a lot of his blood, but the added complication of the hospital not having his rare blood type on hand obviously meant he could still die. That was part of the reason, she remembered, Giles had let Willow talk all of them into getting their blood tested, so that they'd know their blood types... She started as the memory that thought brought came back to her.

__

_Giles nodded in response to Willow's arguments with a slight smile on his face. "You have a number of excellent points, Willow."_

"_So when should I sign us up for?" Willow demanded, eyes scanning Sunnydale General Hospital's homepage on her laptop. "SGH is having a blood drive now..." She shook her head, "You know, I used to wonder why we have so many of them. We have like, five times the number of blood drives here in Sunnydale than any of the hospitals in LA have."_

"_Really?" Xander mumbled through the doughnut he was currently munching on. "Guess it makes sense, with all the vamp attacks around here."_

"_Indeed it does," Giles agreed still smiling. "And the two of you should get your blood tested. And donate some, if you so desire. Though, as a werewolf, Oz cannot."_

"_Yah, that'd be bad," Xander agreed as he reached for another piece of sugary goodness. "Survive a vamp only to become a 'wolf every full moon. No thank you," he nodded to Oz and again mumbled through his doughnut, "No 'fense."_

"_None taken," Oz nodded in return._

_Willow frowned, "What about you and Miss Calendar? And Buffy, she's a lot more likely to need blood than we are."_

"_Jenny and I already know our blood types. Jenny, because she knew where she was moving to when she came to Sunnydale, and I because it's Council policy. And Buffy doesn't need to be tested."_

"_Why not? She—"_

"_Is the Slayer." Giles cut in, "And as per Council policy her blood was tested immediately after she was first Called. And, it was once again found that she has the same blood type that every other Slayer has had before her."_

"_Slayer's all have the same blood type?" Willow blinked, before shaking her head. "That's kind of neat. Do you know why?"_

"_No." Giles shook his head as he removed his glasses and began to polish them. "It's been theorized that all Slayers are universal donors because that is the opposite of vampires, who's blood always turns to that of universal receivers when they are turned." Setting his glasses back on his face, he continued. "But we do not know for certain. To our knowledge, their blood doesn't even change. They're born universal donors and when they become slayers their blood takes on some mystical attributes, which may contribute to their abilities, but it does not change types."_

"_So Buffy's O negative?" Willow asked._

"_O negative plus Slay-power!" Xander added, apparently intrigued by the idea._

"_Indeed."_

_Here, Buffy finally spoke up, looking up from the math book she'd been struggling to comprehend for the quiz that was coming up the next day. "What does that mean if I donate blood?"_

_Giles frowned, "I beg your pardon?"_

"_If I give blood. Will it help or hurt whoever, umm, gets it?"_

"_Theoretically," here the glasses came off again, "It could only help. However it is standard Council policy that Slayers __**cannot**__ give blood. Nor can I, as an active field Watcher."_

"_Why?" Buffy demanded with a frown, "If it'd help—"_

"_It isn't considered wise for you to voluntarily weaken yourself. And some Watchers believe that the blood of a Slayer might have a mystical affect on a normal human being. Vampires have always insisted that the blood of a Slayer is significantly different – more potent – than the blood of normal humans for them, so it is a reasonable hypothesis."_

"_So someone I gave my blood to could become a Slayer?"_

"_No, no," Giles shook his head as he put his glasses back on. "Not as such. As their own body recovered, it would replace your blood with their own, and whatever abilities they gained from having some of your blood should fade. There's a chance some remnants of your abilities might remain... but the Council is rather, protective, of the Slayer. So it's never tested that."_

"_What about blood bonds?" Willow asked, still clearly intrigued. "I read about those in one of the magic books."_

"_Yes, that is a possibility, as well." Seeing that Willow was the only one of the three teenagers that knew what he was talking about, he explained. "As the blood of the Slayer contains a mystical component, though it might not pass their powers on to another, it could very easily form a blood bond between the two."_

"_What would that mean?" Buffy asked, math book forgotten in her lap._

"_It would be similar to the bond that exists between a vampire and his or her Sire. Both are able to sense each other to some degree, and feel a connection between them. And yes, some of the Sires attributes are generally inherited, though in different amounts depending on the individual." He paused, before continuing again. "In essence, you would forever feel connected to whoever you saved, and as the Council does not want the Slayer to have such connections—"_

_Buffy cut in, "They forbid Slayers from giving blood... Even when it might save lives. When my ability to heal might be the difference between life and death for someone..."_

_**END OF FLASHBACK **_

* * *

Buffy shook her head, frowning as her mind came back to the present. She still didn't want to be the Slayer, but she didn't want to let Charlie die either. And despite the Council's 'forbidding' the act, she knew she could help. So she spoke up. "Excuse me, Doctor Helgen?"

"Please excuse me a moment, Mrs. Eppes," The doctor turned to her with a frown, "Yes, Miss?"

"I'm type O negative."

The doctor blinked. "You are? You're certain?"

"Yeah. I had my blood tested at a blood drive just a few months ago." Buffy lied more smoothly than before. "Can I give Charlie some of my blood?"

Doctor Helgen stared at her for a moment before nodding and turning her attention back to the phone. "Excuse me, Mrs. Eppes? Apparently Miss... your son's girlfriend, Anne, is also a Type O negative and willing to donate." She paused a second and nodded again. "Yes, she is. Now, I understand you're willing to let Miss – one moment," raising an eyebrow at Buffy she asked, "What is your last name, dear? I can't seem to recall it."

Buffy hesitated for a moment, but reasoning that she was already tied to Charlie through the 911 call she might as well trust the spell Angel had placed on his old surname really did work. Plus, she still felt a bit safe with it, since it wasn't a name the Watcher's Council was likely to be looking for. "It's O'Conner. Anne O'Conner."

"I understand you're willing to let Miss O'Conner act as your son's medical advocate in your absence? Yes, Anne O'Connor." Dr. Helgen nodded again. "Very well, I'm going to give you to Nurse Lockley, she'll give you a few numbers you need to call. The hospital director and whatnot, to allow this." She paused then nodded again. "Yes, we will make an effort to keep in touch with you, but probably won't be able to while you're in the air. If you could call us before you board your plane, we'll be able to contact you through the airline itself, in the event of an emergency." She paused a few moments longer and nodded again. "Yes, of course. Please make these phone calls right away... Thank you, Mrs. Eppes. Have a safe flight. I'll pass you to Nurse Lockley now." So saying, she handed the phone to the nurse who quickly moved away toward the nearby nurses station even as Dr. Helgen turned back to Buffy and gestured towards the ER doors, "Shall we?"

* * *

0002216625019000161591420000156000279523000

Buffy couldn't help but glance worriedly around the hospital room, at all the people bustling about, all the equipment... and the far too still, too pale, Charlie.

"Don't worry, dear," Nurse Lockley told her, as she came up beside the bed Buffy had been told to lie on next to Charlie. "He's going to be fine. I'll put your phone right here with your purse, all right?" She inquired, as she set the phone next to Buffy's bag on the bedside table.

"Yes," Buffy nodded, "thank you... how long will this take?"

"Not too long," the nurse assured her. "He obviously needs a lot of blood, so we're going to take as much as we can. So you'll be hooked up to an IV of saline solution, to counteract the blood loss as much as possible." She pointed to the IV another nurse was bringing up along the side of the bed opposite the one Charlie was on. "Considering how small you are, we obviously can't take—"

"Take as much as he needs," Buffy cut her off firmly, shaking her head when both nurses frowned at her. "I'm in really good shape and I've always healed quickly. I've actually lost a lot of blood before – not recently – and my doctor said that my body actually reproduces it much more quickly than most peoples. So take as much as you possibly can, I'll sign whatever you need me to for it, but like you said, he needs it."

"I... We'll have to check with the doctor," Nurse Lockley told her after a moment's hesitation. She nodded to the other nurse and then towards the doctor and the younger nurse hurried over to Doctor Helgen.

A few moments later Dr. Helgen was at Buffy's bedside, while the younger nurse was hurrying off. "Is there a problem, Miss O'Connor?"

"No," Buffy shook her head, frowning. "I just told her to take as much blood as she can, and she doesn't want to. But he needs it!" She replied firmly, nodding slightly towards the pale, unconscious Charlie, whose pulse was reading rather thready and breathing was rough.

"Yes, he does." Dr. Helgen agreed, "But we don't want to hurt you to help him. You're very small—"

"I'm in great shape. And I've always healed quickly. I've even lost a lot of blood before and I was fine soon afterward." Buffy paused for a second, then added, still frowning, "I don't mind staying here for a few hours afterward, for observation or something, I promised Mrs. Eppes I'd stay with Charlie till she got here anyway."

At that Dr. Helgen offered a small, kind smile. "Yes, I heard..." then she sighed, shaking her head. "We'll need you to fill these papers out, for yourself, first. And sign the forms at the back. Then we'll get started, all right?" she asked, accepting the once again full clipboard the younger nurse had returned with.

Taking the clipboard from the doctor, Buffy nodded. "Okay."

While the nurses continued to bustle around her and Charlie and Dr. Helgen looked on, Buffy started filling the forms out, hoping what Angel said about the spell on the name 'O'Connor' continued to hold true for as long as she stayed here.

'_Full Name... Anne Joyce O'Connor. Birth Date, four, fourteen... if I tell them I'm only seventeen they'll probably refuse to do it, so not 1979. Nineteen-seventy-five. So I'm twenty-one and just look very good for my age. Didn't come in with any ID, so they couldn't check it even if I had it... Height? Five feet three inches. Weight?...One-hundred-twenty, I think. Medical Insurance?_" Buffy frowned again in thought. "_I can't say what I actually have, cause the Council might notice that. And I really don't know how much Angel's spell will cover, so I don't want to make it look suspicious by saying I have the same insurance... What was Willow's? Blue Cross of California? Well, that'll have to do... membership number?_" She shrugged as she quickly filled a number in. "_Well, the spell will have to cover this. I'll just say the same number as Charlie's, mixed up a little._'

"Almost ready, Miss O'Connor?"

Buffy gave Nurse Lockley a distracted nod, hurrying a little despite the nurse's patient tone. '_Primary Care Physician? ... Who was the doctor that was turned a week or two before Acatha? He had a practice here in LA too, I think... Mark Wallace? Yeah._' Buffy nodded decisively, writing it in. '_Emergency contacts? Should at least give them someone they can actually call,_' she thought, as she wrote in '_Mrs. Margaret Eppes... Medications and allergies are a 'no.'_' Turning to the next page, she quickly signed and date the forms that followed, slowing only slightly on the signatures to make sure she put the right name in all of them, barely reading the forms themselves. After signing the last one she handed the clipboard back to Nurse Lockley with a smile. "All done!"

The older woman frowned at her as she replied. "You really should read the forms before you sign them, dear. They're for your own good."

Buffy shrugged, forcing a little cheer into her tone as she lightly replied. "I've read them before. One of my teacher's in high school made us look at this kind of stuff for a few weeks. Thought they'd be a good life lesson." She said, waiving her hand at the clipboard. "Guess he was right. The format's a little different on some of them, but the general gist of it all was the same, so I just skimmed it." In reality, she'd had to bring one of the Scoobies to the emergency room often enough that she really did know most of their forms word for word.

After a moment's silence, Lockley nodded. "Smart man... I'll be back in a moment with Doctor Helgen."

A few minutes later, both women returned just as one of the other nurses finished taking Buffy's blood pressure and another one hooked her up the saline IV they'd been talking about before. Though Buffy had noted that the bag on this IV was bigger than the one that had been brought over earlier. A few minutes after that, she was lying all the way back, watching as the doctor first stuck a need into Charlie's arm one spot, then a needle into another spot on Buffy's arm – near the inside of her elbow, before connecting them with a thin tube as a Nurse Lockley put a small plastic ball in Buffy's hand.

"Squeeze the ball," Lockley told her, before shaking her head and patting Buffy's hand softly, "No, gently, gently. And slower, about every five to seven seconds."

With Lockley's calm coaxing, under the attentive eyes of Dr. Helgen, Buffy watched as her blood left her body and flowed steadily into Charlie's, a little uncomfortable with the action as she felt confusion from the Slayer part of her at the loss. The Slayer, which she'd been able to feel more and more steadily with each passing day since her death at the Master's hands, was unhappy at loosing blood but was happy that the blood would help save the life of an innocent that vampires had tried to take... After a few minutes of the conflicting emotions rolling around her head, she felt that volatile part of her being relax and accept what was happening... and she swore she could actually _feel_ her healing ability kick in, as though to make up for the loss while it was occurring.

"Are you all right, Miss O'Connor?"

Buffy nodded to Dr. Helgen's concerned inquiry. "I'm fine... It just... looks a little weird, you know? To watch my blood like... that."

Dr. Helgen nodded in understanding, smiling slightly. "Actually, most people don't watch when they're donating blood, even when it's into another person that's right next to them. They might glance at the person they're helping, but generally they either shut their eyes or look at anything but the needle in their arm and blood leaving them."

"Blood doesn't bother me," Buffy said with a shrug, adding with a glance around the room. "I'm not overly fond of hospitals, actually, but blood itself doesn't bother me."

"Most people don't like being in hospitals," the doctor nodded sympathetically again. "I can't really blame them. Being in one if you don't work there means that either you're sick or someone you care for is... Have you spent much time in a hospital before?"

"Not really." Buffy replied honestly, seeing no harm in a truthful answer. "I visited my dad's Mom a few times before she died when I was little... and I saw my cousin die in one."

"Your cousin?"

"Yeah. Celia. She died when I was eight..." Buffy told her quietly, her eyes distant as she traveled down memory lane to that terrible memory that she'd only recently learned was tied to demons also. "She was supposed to be getting better and my parents left me in her hospital room to play with her. We were coloring and then she suddenly just froze up and started shaking... then all the machines started making a lot of noise and I hid in the corner while the doctors tried to save her... One of the nurses spotted me as they were covering her up..."

"I'm sorry."

Buffy started at the doctor's equally quiet, sad words before shaking her head. "Not your fault... but thank you."

"It's easy to understand your not liking hospitals, then," the doctor offered kindly. "And it makes your calmness and decisiveness today all the more remarkable."

"Umm... thanks, I think." Buffy sighed. "It was a long time ago, anyway. And Charlie needed me."

"He did... How old was your cousin?"

"Celia? I think she was seven when she died. Just a little younger than me."

The doctor shook her head sadly. "I became a doctor to help people. And I've learned to accept death when it happens...but it's much harder with children."

"It should be, I think." Buffy replied, as her mind traveled back to some of the time's she'd needed to rescue children from vampires. Most of the residence of Sunnydale knew it wasn't safe to come out after dark. And most of the parents there made sure their children were always safe, especially the little ones... But sometimes she'd run into out-of-towners that weren't so wise... She shook her head as one of the nurses' cleared her throat.

"Doctor?" the nurse murmured, bringing the doctor out of the thoughts she had also apparently been lost in.

"What? Oh!" With ease of long practice, Dr. Helgen quickly moved to remove the needle from Buffy's arm, allowing a nurse to put a bandage on the spot as the last of the flood in the tube flowed into Charlie before he, too, was bandaged up. "There we go."

Buffy frowned, glancing at Charlie, who seemed to be a little better but still looked awful pale. "Are you sure that's enough?"

"I only meant to take one liter, dear, and we took a little more that," Dr. Helgen told her gently, smiling at her concern. "Don't worry though. He should be fine now... though how he lost so much blood from such a small wound I really don't understand, even a neck wound..."

"But you didn't take that much," Buffy protested again.

"Look," the doctor pointed to some of the machines around Charlie as she spoke. "His pulse and blood pressure are steady now. And his breathing is becoming much more regular. All good signs. And we legally can't take more blood from you. We probably shouldn't have taken as much as we did, considering your size."

"I feel fine!"

"Good," the doctor nodded again. "You may experience some dizziness, though your body should replace the blood you've lost in the next twenty-four hours. I don't want you to leave this bed for at least an hour. We—"

"But I promised—"

"We'll keep Charlie right here, so you can keep an eye on him, all right?" After receiving a nod, the doctor gently patted her on the shoulder. "We're going to keep you hooked up to this IV and one of the nurses will bring you a snack and some orange juice. I want you to eat that and then get some rest, all right?" She held up a hand to forestall protests. "If there is any news, I'll be sure to let you know. But both you and Charlie need to rest right now."

After a moment's silence, Buffy nodded reluctantly, though she was happy to see that Charlie did seem to be breathing more easily, and he didn't look quite as pale as before. "Okay... you'll wake me if—"

"I'll wake you if Charlie needs anything," the doctor nodded, her pale blue eyes bright as she offered Buffy another smile. "You did a good thing this evening, Miss O'Connor. Now get some rest."

Obediently, Buffy laid her head down and closed her eyes, not really expecting she'd actually be able to fall asleep, but after a few moment's the calm, quiet noises around her became distant as she faded off to sleep.

__

000101524350001921131351819000161591420000156000279523000

Joyce Summers sighed as she moved around her kitchen again. Puttering. She didn't need to be at the gallery for a few hours yet. Normally she wouldn't even be awake at this hour, the birds were still only half-awake.

But then, nothing had been 'normal' about the last few weeks. Not since the night she saw her daughter shove a wooden stake through a man's heart and learned he was a vampire after he'd crumbled to dust. And learned that her daughter was some kind of mythic warrior that was supposed to fight these monsters.

She wished she'd reacted better. Since finding out all of what her daughter's 'destiny' entailed, she really wished she hadn't taken her confusion-based anger out on her only child.

It hadn't been anymore reasonable to scream at Mr. Giles when he'd come to her home to ask after Buffy a few days after she'd run away. After Joyce had kicked her out. But it had made her feel better. A little, at least.

Though that feeling quickly faded over the hours she'd then spent with Mr. Giles, learning about her daughter's life of the last few years. Learning about the fights and weird occurrences Buffy had referred to.

It had broken her heart all over again. And until her daughter came home, she didn't think that her heart had any hope of healing.

She'd filed a missing persons report weeks ago. At the same time Mr. Giles and several of Buffy's friends had gone to the police station to clear Buffy's name. Apparently the Sunnydale High School principle really was an evil man, as Buffy had insisted so many times. For she could think of no other reason he would be so insistent that Buffy was a murderer. Nor any reason he could refuse to let Buffy to return to school once her name was cleared.

All of that had eventually been sorted out though. Now all she needed was for her baby to come home. She hoped Buffy came home soon on her own.

But she also put much more faith in Mr. Giles finding her than in Sunnydale's fairly incompetent police department. Giles, at least, was expending time and effort to find her. The police barely seemed to be trying...

Joyce shook her head. After finding out that real, true demons existed she'd been seeing evil everywhere, which was not how she wanted to live. Hopefully, the world would seem like a better place when Buffy came home. And hopefully that was soon. She didn't know how much more of this _waiting_ she could take...

End of _**Chapter 1: A Hellish Place, Part I**_.

**AN: Well, what do you think so far?**

**Thank you to those who review for the prologue, I'm glad that you like what you've seen so far and hope you continue to like it as I go along.**

**Comments and constructive criticism are always welcome, so please review!**

**Bye f****or now! **

**Jess S**

* * *

* * *

Sunnydale, California – Monday, June 3, 1996 – early morning

* * *

FLASHBACK


	3. Chapter 2: A Hellish Place II

**Disclaimers: ****Buffy the Vampire Slayer**** belongs to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy & Fox. ****Numb3rs**** belongs to CBS. (NOT ME!!) **

**Warnings: **None that I can think of... if you see anything I should warn people about, let me know... I suppose I should warn people that this is an AU fic or something like that, but it IS a crossover, so I'd think most would draw that conclusion themselves.

**Summary: **While struggling to ignore her destiny and forget the tragedies that resulted from it, Buffy is drawn to save an innocent and makes a new friend in the process. And Charlie learns that there's more to the world than he'd ever imagined.

**AN: **Hi! I've been trying to think of a crossover for these two series for a while, and though this one may seem a bit unpractical it works... And I find it amusing and I've seen worse, and so have you if you've read even a fraction of the crossovers I've read.

**First Meeting**

_**Part I in Mathematics & Magic**_

By Jess S

_**Chapter 2: A Hellish Place **_

_**Part II**_

_**Los Angeles, California – Monday, June 3, 1996 – early evening**_

0002216625019000161591420000156000279523000

"He'll be all right, you're sure?" A familiar, female voice roused Buffy from her sleep some time later.

As her groggy brain made the connection between the voice and the identity of the woman, Buffy couldn't help but frown as she realized that Mrs. Eppes presence meant Buffy herself had actually been asleep for a number of hours. She hadn't slept more than five hours a night since she'd become the Slayer! She'd never needed to...

"Yes, Mrs. Eppes, I'm quite sure," Dr. Helgen's voice replied, her tone kind. "The extra blood Miss O'Connor gave him certainly seemed to help. He's been steadily improving since the transfusion."

"He hasn't woken up though?" a somewhat familiar man's voice asked worriedly. Probably Mr. Eppes, Charlie's dad, Buffy reasoned.

"No, he hasn't. But that's not surprising. He did nearly die from blood loss. He also has a mild concussion and he was in shock when he first came in. The combination would exhaust anyone. His body's just recuperating. He should wake up sometime early this evening, maybe even later this afternoon at the rate he's been improving."

After a moment's pause, Mrs. Eppes asked, "What about Anne, is she okay? She's been asleep this whole time?"

Here the doctor sounded a little bit worried as she replied. "Yes, Miss O'Connor will be fine. Though I'm afraid she wasn't quite truthful when she told us she was in excellent health for the transfusion." The latter part was said with a bit of irritation in her tone.

"She's sick? Won't—"

Dr. Helgen cut Mr. Eppes's worried question off quickly, "No. She doesn't have any actual illness. In that regard, I think she may actually be one of the healthiest people I've ever seen. From the scan we did of her blood test a few hours ago, it doesn't look like she's ever had any major illness."

"What's wrong with her then?" Mrs. Eppes asked worriedly, making Buffy want to squirm guiltily even as she fought to remain 'asleep'.

"Well, for starters, I don't she's been taking the best of care of herself as of late. She's somewhat malnourished, dehydrated and clearly exhausted. So she probably hasn't been sleeping well or eating healthily." The doctor paused for a moment before continuing with a sigh. "She was also very insistent that we take as much blood as possible for Charlie, and that has certainly helped him, though it wasn't all that good for her."

"Why?" Mr. Eppes asked, now sounding more concerned than frustrated, and again Buffy couldn't help but feel guilty at their distress.

"Well, she distracted me so we took a little more than the liter we had planned on taking. Not much more, mind you, but if we'd known she wasn't eating correctly, we wouldn't have been willing to take any in the first place. And she also lied about her weight on the form she filled in."

"I did not!" Buffy protested with an indignant frown, eyes flying open only to cringe back when the three adults in the room turned towards her.

Dr. Helgen shook her head in clear amusement as she moved to Buffy's bedside to frown down at her. "You did, Miss O'Connor. To be eligible to donate blood you must weight at least one-hundred and ten pounds. You said you weigh one-hundred-twenty pounds."

"I do!"

"No, you don't. You're only weight just over one-hundred pounds." The doctor pointed to a clipboard that was next to the IV that was hooked up to Buffy's arm along with a heart monitor. "We checked a few hours ago."

"Oh." Buffy frowned. "Well I didn't lie. I _thought_ I weighed a hundred and twenty pounds."

"When was the last time you checked?"

"...My weight? I don't know. A month or two ago, I think... Sometime in April?"

"Has your diet changed significantly since then?" the doctor demanded, her pen poised over the clipboard she grabbed a moment before.

"...Um. A little, I guess. I moved away from home this summer, and have an apartment downtown now. I work at a diner near there, and we get lunch and dinner free when we're working."

"And breakfast?"

"I'm usually not hungry in the morning. I might have a muffin or fruit, sometimes yogurt, but usually I don't eat much till lunch."

"Well," Dr. Helgen shook her head disapprovingly. "You have to stop that. It's not healthy. You need to eat breakfast regularly. It's the most important meal of the day. _And_ you should have quite a bit more variety in your diet. Surely diner food must get awful boring after a while?"

Buffy shrugged. "I guess. I'm not usually that hungry. I just eat whenever the other waitresses grab me to sit down for lunch or dinner with them..."

If anything, that seemed to make the doctor's frown deepen. "Are you unhappy with your appearance, Miss O'Connor?"

"Umm..." Buffy frowned, glancing down at her body and shaking her head. "No?" then with a start, she looked back at her body again and demanded, "Hey! Where's my uniform?"

"The nurses thought you'd sleep more comfortably in that," the doctor replied, her tone mild. "Your clothing will, of course, be returned to you when you check out."

"I never checked in!" Buffy protested, a bit worried at any background checks they might run on her for her medical information and such with her as a patient, but hoping that Angel was right and his spell still worked on anyone that used his surname and wanted to remain unnoticed.

"Yes, you did. For the transfusion, remember?"

"Oh. Yeah... But I don't need medical attention. I feel fine."

"You were unconscious for nearly eleven hours. Have you not been sleeping well?"

"Eleven – Is Charlie okay?!" Buffy demanded, her eyes flying to the concerned Eppes, who were standing a little ways away, closer to Charlie's bed. "I'm so sorry! I—"

"No, no, dear," Mrs. Eppes quickly reassured her, coming over to take one of Buffy's hands in her own. "He's fine. You saved him."

"Yes, I dare say you did." Dr. Helgen conceded with a kind smile, before shaking her head again. "We didn't need to wake you for anything concerning Dr. Eppes. His health has steadily improved since the transfusion. As you can see for yourself," she nodded to the other bed, and Mrs. Eppes moved a little so that Buffy could have a clear view of Charlie.

He was still a little pale, but looked mostly healthy. He was breathing regularly, and accept for the bandages around his neck, right shoulder – and maybe his ribs, though she couldn't see because he was covered by a blanket – and all of the equipment attached to him, he looked like he was sleeping peacefully.

"That... That's good." Buffy murmured, after a moment's silence. Then she frowned, her mind suddenly catching on to the significance of 'unconscious for eleven hours' after giving blood in the early morning hours, Buffy blurted out, "Wh-what time is it?"

The doctor glanced at the watch on her wrist before replying, "Almost two o'clock," she moved forward to help Mrs. Eppes keep Buffy in bed as she struggled to get up. "What _are_ you doing?"

"I have to get to work! I'm already late!"

"No. You need to rest." The doctor said firmly, "I can call your supervisor myself, if that would make you feel better, but you will certainly _not_ be going to work today. Or any of the next few days, probably."

Buffy stared at her for a few seconds before shaking her head, frowning as she protested, "What? Why? I feel fine! And I need the money."

"You need to _rest_, Miss O'Connor. And eat. By your own admission you've unknowingly lost a dangerous amount of weight in a short amount of time due to your schedule and poor eating habits."

"I did not!"

"Anne. Anne, please," Mrs. Eppes placed a gentle hand on her cheek, turning Buffy's panicked face towards her as she continued. "Listen to Doctor Helgen. I can't thank you enough for saving Charlie, but you need to take care of yourself, too."

"But I... I need to go to work." Buffy protested, though much less forcefully.

"Doctor Helgen said she would call your boss for you. And you'll have a hospital note when you return, so they legally can't fire you for missing work."

"But..." Buffy shook her head, "I won't even be able to pay for whatever bills I have from last night if I miss too much work."

"I'm sure your paren—" Mrs. Eppes paused, shaking her head. "No. My husband and I will take care of the bills. You're here because you saved Charlie, after all."

"That's right," Mr. Eppes agreed, stepping up beside his wife to smile down at the pretty blonde. "Don't worry about any of that, dear."

Buffy sighed, lying back a bit as she offer another half-hearted protest. "I _hate_ hospitals."

Dr. Helgen laughed, "I know, you admitted that last night, remember?" she asked with a warm smile. "Unfortunately, I can't agree to you going home by yourself until you get your weight up to an acceptable level."

"How long will that take?"

"That really depends on you. On how much you eat and rest. If you want to get out sooner, you need to really concentrate on getting better."

"Couldn't I... I don't know. Go home and come back a few times, for check ups? I promise I'll try to eat more. And rest. I'll rest a lot better at home."

"I can't agree to that, Miss O'Connor. At least not until you've put a bit of weight on. Honestly, I'm surprised you haven't had some kind of problems before now. Have you?"

"What kind of problems?"

"Dizziness? Fainting spells? Random bouts of weakness?"

'_All things Slayer-healing would take care of before they became problematic, or even noticeable,_' Buffy realized with a frown as she shook her head. "No," she told the doctor, '_Of course, being the Slayer may be the problem. I haven't been patrolling or working out, so it hasn't been directed at anything, like Giles said it needs to be... I wonder if that'd actually do something..._' She shook her head slightly, looking up at the doctor again to ask. "I haven't been exercising as much as I used to. So I've lost some of the muscle I used to have, could that be what the weight loss was?"

Dr. Helgen frowned, shaking her head again. "Well it might have been some of it, I doubt you've lost twenty pounds worth of muscle, dear. Well you might be able to gain that much if you really worked at it, you wouldn't be able to loose it in just a few weeks, especially without noticing the loss."

"Oh..." '_Well, I can't really ask her about my mystical powers..._' Buffy thought with a sigh, shaking her head again. "Couldn't you send me home with a list of meal requirement and a schedule, or something like that? I really don't want to stay here."

Before the doctor could respond, Mrs. Eppes cut in. "If I may, could Anne come home with us, doctor?"

Dr. Helgen paused for a moment in thought before nodding. "That might work better. If you're comfortable with it, Miss O'Connor. I don't like the idea of you going home by yourself where you could pass out or something similar without anyone noticing. And I'm sure that Mr. and Mrs. Eppes could help you with your diet."

"Indeed, we could!" Mr. Eppes cut in with a wide smile. "My Maggie makes some of the best family meals you'll find anywhere!" he told them with a smile.

"Alan," Mrs. Eppes shook her head with a fond smile, before nodding to the doctor. "If you gave us some kind of guideline, I'm sure we could work it out." She then looked at Buffy again. "Would that be all right with you, Anne?"

Buffy looked around at the three watching adults a little uncertainly, shrugging as she replied, "I... I wouldn't want to impose."

"It wouldn't be an imposition at all, dear." Mrs. Eppes quickly assured her. "We have a guest room back at the house, two actually, since our eldest live in D.C. now. And we have plenty of room in the house. Actually," she smiled warmly as Buffy, "I think it'd be rather fun. I can't remember the last time I had another girl living with me for an extended period of time... Not since college, at least."

"Well... umm. Okay," Buffy agreed, deciding that there really wasn't any way the Council could trace her to the Eppes anyway, and since Charlie had already been targeted by vampires in an area that didn't see many of them, she probably should keep an eye on him for a bit anyway, just to make sure he hadn't recently become a vampire or demon magnet like Xander. "If it's okay with you... And Charlie. If it's okay with your whole family."

Mrs. Eppes laughed, shaking her head. "I'm sure Charlie won't mind at all, dear. And Donnie won't either, if he does come to visit for a bit... Did you get a hold of him?"

Buffy frowned, quickly snatching Charlie's cell phone off of where it sat at the bedside table, just as she'd left it hours before and flipping it open, shaking her head as no messages appeared. "No. I left him a voicemail, but he hasn't called back."

"Oh, well. No harm done. I'm sure we'll get a call from him soon enough. Though I should probably try him again soon, just to tell him Charlie's all right and that he doesn't have to fly out hear if he's too busy to."

"Charlie is definitely all right, though?" Buffy asked quietly, glancing towards him again. "I'm surprised we didn't wake him up."

"His body's still recuperating, dear. I'm sure he'll be awake soon... You don't mind staying in the hospital till he does, though, I'm sure?"

"No. No, I can wait here for him." Buffy agreed quickly, though a part of her wasn't sure it was the best idea for her to keep herself cooped up here, another part of her _really_ didn't want to leave.

"Good, then," Dr. Helgen smiled as she made her way towards the door. "I'll have the nurses bring some lunch trays up and I'll be back to check on you and Charlie in an hour or two. Call for a nurse if he wakes sooner, and they'll page me, all right?" At their nods she raised an eyebrow and asked, "Would you like some lunch as well, Mrs. Eppes? Mr. Eppes?"

"We'd love some, thank you," Mrs. Eppes thanked her, shooting her husband a look that silenced him when it looked like he might protest.

Then the doctor left, almost closing the door behind her but leaving it slightly ajar for the nurses. Buffy waited a moment, then murmured. "I'm sorry."

Mrs. Eppes frowned, "For what, dear? About your weight? That's hardly—"

"No," Buffy shook her head, blushing. "I didn't know about that. I... I meant about having to take care of me and for lying, about... about being Charlie's girlfriend."

Both Eppes stared at her for a moment before bursting out laughing.

In retrospect, she supposed it had been a strange thing to apologize for, when she'd just saved their son's life. But she'd saved many people before him, and couldn't remember receiving a 'thank you' from any of them. So the idea that they wouldn't mind that fib and that they'd actually _want_ to repay her somehow kind of baffled her.

After a few moments of silence, with the elder Eppes catching their breath after laughing so hard, Buffy remembered another thing that had been mentioned earlier. "Wait... Charlie's only nineteen, isn't he?"

"Yes, dear," Mrs. Eppes replied, a small smile on her face as she continued before Buffy could ask the question she saw coming. "And yes, he is a doctor. Not a medical doctor, mind you. He has a doctorate in applied mathematics. So he can teach it at a college level."

"I... I thought it took _years_ to get that. And that's after regular college, isn't it?"

"Normally yes. But Charlie went through the school systems very quickly. He basically tested out of most of school, and started high school with his older brother. He and Don graduated together when Charlie was thirteen, then he went to Princeton. He finished his doctorate there last year."

Buffy glanced at Charlie again, trying not to stare before she turned her attention back to his proud parents. "Wow, that's... wow. So he's a genius?"

Both Eppes laughed and Mr. Eppes nodded, "To put it mildly, yes. Actually a lot of geniuses find him overwhelming..."

The three chatted for a while after that, Buffy reluctantly forcing herself to eat the whole meal that one of the nurses set before her under Mrs. Eppes' watchful eyes as they talked about Los Angeles, Charlie's schooling, Buffy's – very light – background, and so on. Buffy made a continual effort to redirect the conversation to the Eppes family whenever possible, not wanting to lie to them but not willing to tell them the entire truth about herself. A part of her wished she wasn't stuck here as one, she hated hospitals and two, she wasn't used to spending time with victims and their family after saving them. But another part of her, after several weeks on her own, drifting from day to day in mindless nothingness found the pleasant small talk nice and she found she was actually rather happy at the idea of staying with this nice family instead of going home to her rundown, cold and lonely apartment.

Charlie woke about three hours after that. More than a little confused at how well acquainted his parent's had become with his roommate. But then again, he'd been pretty confused by the fact that they were there at all, as they'd been in Paris the last time he was awake.

Buffy had been watching him as he woke up, talking quietly with his parents, and met his eyes with a smile when he turned to look at her and froze, staring at her. "Is... Is something wrong?" she asked with a frown.

"You... the angel...?" Charlie murmured quietly, starting when his mother put a gentle, concerned hand on his shoulder even as Buffy fought back the onslaught of emotion the word 'Angel' wrought inside her mind.

"What was that, sweetheart?" Mrs. Eppes – who wanted to be called 'Maggie,' – asked him.

"I..." Charlie took a deep breath before continuing. "I remember seeing you. When I was lying there... I thought you were an angel," he told her with a small smile, his blush matching Buffy's as both his parents chuckled. After their warm chuckles died down he met her eyes again, and the warmth in his chocolate-brown eyes made her breath catch. "Thank you."

Buffy blinked at him for a moment, shaking her head. "I didn't..."

"Thank you for saving me. And for being there..." he smiled brightly at her, making her breath catch again. "You were holding my hand, weren't you?"

"Y-yeah." Buffy nodded a bit unsurely.

"Thank you." His smile faded as his eyes scanned her form, mostly hidden by the blankets that covered her. "Wait, what happened to you? Did they hurt you?"

"No! No." Buffy shook her head quickly. "I'm fine. I guess the shock just caught up with me after I gave blood and I was out a little bit longer than they liked, so now they're holding me prisoner. Accept without bars and shackles and...yeah."

"Gave blood?" Charlie tilted his head to the side, his eyes then trailing to the bandage on her arm and the one on his. "You gave me blood?"

"She did." Mrs. Eppes confirmed with a warm smile. "The doctor said it probably saved your life. Which we can't thank you enough for, dear."

Buffy looked down, blushing as she mumbled. "I didn't do that much..."

"Yes. You did. You saved our Charlie's life twice last night, Annie," Mr. Eppes – who she was supposed to call 'Alan' – told her. "So I don't want to hear even one word of modesty pass your lips for at least a week, all right? If you must be modest, say 'your welcome' and nod a lot."

Charlie was chuckling at his father's demands, but he frowned as his brain caught part of what he said. "A week?" he looked at Buffy again. "You're going to be here for a week? What—?"

"No," Mrs. Eppes cut in shaking her head from side to side and drawing his attention to her where she sat in a seat between the two beds. Her husband had drawn a seat up to the end of the bed, but she'd wanted to be closer to both of them. "She'll be coming home with us for a bit, apparently she hasn't been eating as much as she should go giving blood wasn't the best of ideas. But we'll have her fixed up in no time."

"Uh—um. Okay." Charlie nodded, then smiled brightly at Buffy again. "Well, I guess we'll be seeing a lot of each other for a while, won't we? ...I'm glad."

Buffy met his eyes for a few moments before nodding slightly. "Me too..."

End of _**Chapter 2: A Hellish Place, Part II**_.

**AN: Thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far. I'm glad you like the story. To the reviewer who commented on the measurements of blood... Thank you, but I've decided to leave it as it is. Despite being unrealistic, whenever I think of the word "pint" and liquids, the scene in the Fellowship of the Ring where Merry gets a pint of beer pops into my head. Strange, I know, but enough of a reason for my tired brain at the moment. But once again, thank you for pointing out the error.**

**Continuing on that line of thought, I AM looking for a beta-reader for this fic, so if anyone is interested, please let me know. More than that though, if there's anyone reading this that really understands a lot of the math that Charlie uses in NUMB3RS before the 'Charlie Vision' comes up to explain it, I could use some help in making those parts of my NUMB3RS related fics more realistic later. Any help at all would be appreciated.**

**Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter and where the stories going so far.**

**Comments and constructive criticism are still more than welcome, so please REVIEW!!**

**Bye for now! **

**Jess S**


	4. Chapter 3: What Goes Bump In The Night?

**Disclaimers: ****Buffy the Vampire Slayer**** belongs to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy & Fox. ****Numb3rs**** belongs to CBS. (NOT ME!!!)  
AN: at the end.**

**First Meeting**

_**Part I in Mathematics & Magic**_

By Jess S

_**Chapter 3: What Goes Bump In The Night?**_

_**Part I**_

_**Eppes' House, Pasadena, California – Friday, June 20, 1996**_

0 0 0 2 2 1 6 6 2 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 7 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Buffy sighed, glancing towards the door the led from the garage to the kitchen, now closed. When Charlie had asked her to come out here to help him with something, she had kind of been expecting this. A part of her had been expecting it since the day he woke up – and actually remembered her. Another part had been hoping his brilliant brain suffered at least one of the failings common to so many of their race: the inability to believe in magic and all that goes bump in the night. He'd certainly seemed innocent enough... but it seemed that was not to be.

"Please, Annie," Charlie murmured quietly after she'd been silent for several long moment. "Just help me understand."

Buffy had to smile slightly at the nickname the Eppes family had given her almost as soon as it had been decided that she would be living with them. Alan Eppes liked to shorten or, actually, rhyme all of his loved ones names, so his wife was 'Maggie,' his eldest son, Don was 'Donnie,' his youngest was 'Charlie,' and Anne had very quickly become 'Annie' in his mind, and seeing she didn't mind, his wife and son were quick to follow suit with the endearment. As she met Charlie's brown eyes, which were gazing at her pleadingly – almost desperately – the smile faded as she shook her head. "Charlie... You really _don't_ want to know. It's kind of... you really aren't likely to see anything... like that again. You don't _need_ to know." She shook her head and hurried on when he opened his mouth to protest, a somewhat familiar, stubborn frown settling itself on his brow. "_Please_, Charlie. Can't you just take my word on this?"

"I..." Charlie paused in thought, remaining silent again for several long moments before he shook his head decisively. "I'm sorry, Annie. I really am. But I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because I can't!" he replied firmly, shaking his head again as that fierce frown took over the rest of his handsome face. "It's been two weeks since we checked out of the hospital and I... I can't stop thinking about that night! I _need_ to understand, Anne... I've tried to ignore everything that doesn't make sense about that night." He paused, shaking his head again as he continued. "And I've tried to figure it out by myself. Neither worked..." He suddenly grabbed one of her hands gently, walking around her slightly as she tried to turn away, to maintain eye contact. "You're the only one I know that can help me with this, Annie. _Please_, help me."

Buffy sighed, looking into his deep, bright eyes, shaking her head slightly as she replied. "There's no going back after you know, Charlie. Believe me, I'm still trying... and it's not working." She placed a finger over his lips to silence him when he went to speak again, shaking her head firmly. "Believe me, you have no idea how much the knowledge you're asking for will change your view of the world... Right now, in the world as you know it, most things make sense to you, don't they?" She gestured to an open notebook that lay forgotten on a nearby chair, something he was probably working on not too long ago but had lost interest in since the attack. "Your Mom said you can explain almost anything with math. And math always makes sense to you. So the world, as you know it, must make sense to you." Truthfully, she had no idea how anything in life – particularly human nature – could be _that_ predictable. But even when she had focused on her studies in school – a time some years past – her mind never would have been on par with _Charlie's_ and she supposed the Powers That Be must do something similar all the time. Though they'd definitely fXXXXd up the most recent apocalypse-in-the-making...

Charlie nodded slightly in agreement, before shrugging his shoulders, his reply forcing her attention back to the much less painful present. "But it's all a lie, isn't it?"

"No!" Buffy shook her head forcefully, sending some of her golden hair flying from side to side behind her. "No. It's not a lie. It wouldn't work if it was a lie, would it?"

"Maybe." Charlie nodded. "But it's not the whole truth, is it? My world view is incomplete. So the data I work with is incomplete, and my conclusions are as well."

"But it works, doesn't it? Before last Tuesday night, you were happy with your world as it was, weren't you?"

"Yes... But now that I know something else is out there, I want... no, I _need_ to know what it is." He caught her chin in one gentle hand as she tried to turn away again, gently forcing her to meet his eyes. "Please help me, Annie."

Buffy stared at him for several long moments, meeting his earnest expression head on and letting the Slayer rise up to inspect him – as it had inspected Willow and Xander, and even Giles and Merrick, and others at different point in time – before sighing as it drew back with what felt like approval even as she watched Charlie almost – _almost_ – take a step back as a part of him sensed the all too potent shift in her being. Of course, the Slayer seemed to approve of that reaction too, it fed Her colossal ego and it proved that his subconscious at least did have enough common sense to stand a chance at surviving the supernatural world. After receiving the Slayer's evident approval, Buffy sighed, resigning herself to answering his questions and introducing him to her world, but still not liking it one bit. "How much do you want to know?"

"Everything!" Charlie immediately insisted, his chocolate gaze bright and eager like a puppy that had just realized it could win treats by staring at people and whimpering.

Buffy smiled slightly at his enthusiasm, but her smile faded again as she started to reply. "What do you remember?"

0 0 0 3 8 1 1 8 1 2 9 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 7 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

"About the attack?" Charlie frowned, but sighed as he received a nod in return. He closed his eyes, struggling to call up as many of the details as possible before opening them again to respond, his mind still turned inward to memories of that night. "I... I talked to my parents on the phone around ten PM. They called me after they finished breakfast. Mom told me to go to bed soon..." he felt his cheeks warming slightly at the memory of his mother's clearly necessary demands, while waiving a hand at a nearby notebook half-full with math notes. "I tend to get caught up in my work, and I agreed, but then I, uh—"

"Lost track of time?"

"Um, yeah... And, then the doorbell rang a few hours later. Just after one AM, I remember 'cause I looked at the clock as I was going to answer it... I looked through the side window – Don's always lecturing us on keeping the door locked and checking before we open it and everything. He's a little paranoid... though I guess not really."

"He _is_ an FBI Agent," 'Annie's' soft voice drew Charlie back to the present for another moment, and he nodded in response to her comment and the gentle smile that was gracing her face.

"Yeah... I'm glad Mom didn't tell him how badly I was hurt."

At that 'Annie' snorted, and when Charlie looked at her in confusion, she told him, "From listening to her talk to him, it sounded more like you'd had a major clumsy moment and knocked a book case over onto yourself."

Charlie laughed, easily able to imagine his mother spinning such a similar story. "Did she actually say that?"

"Well yeah...'cept for the bookcase and any real details about how you got hurt...or how badly you were hurt. Mostly you just fell and needed to go to the hospital for a blood transfusion... And somehow a stranger who's now living with you became involved... That was 'bout as clear as she seemed to get from when I was listening."

Charlie shook his head in bemusement, "I gotta wonder what happened to his phone, though. I mean, he's an FBI Agent so I doubt he just lost it."

"Sounded to me like it was broken somehow... though I'd think he should have still gotten my message if the Bureau replaced it right away. Even if he was on the road going after someone for a little while when it was broken."

Charlie shook his head again, before sighing, "He's gonna be _terrible_ the next time I talk to him... though I'm glad he won't be worrying too much."

"Big brother pretty protective?"

"Yeah," Charlie shook his head again. "It used to drive me nuts, you know... I skipped a bunch of grades because of… my, uh, gifts. Ended up in high school with Don. We graduated the same year." He sighed again, moments of some of the worst years in his life coming to the fore of his mind. "I was so excited at first, and so disappointed when Donnie basically wanted nothing to do with me. What teenager wants to hang out with their genius-kid brother?" he asked, nodding in agreement to Annie's sympathetic wince.

"How much older is Don?"

"He was five when I was born. I was nine when we started high school. Thirteen when we graduated together..." Charlie shook his head again, willing his high school memories to fade into the back of his brain again. "Looking back on it, I can see how hard that must have been for him. But being ignored still really hurt..."

"But he was still an over-protective big-brother?"

"Yeah," Charlie smiled slightly, shaking his head as more memories came up, these ones better because they were some of the occasions his brother showed interest in him. "I was something of an enigma in high school. Don wouldn't let anyone bully me, and he was popular, so most people just ignored me. I got teased sometimes, but the few times someone actually tried to bully me in any way, Don set them straight pretty quick..." Charlie frowned sadly again, as this brought some of the people he really hadn't liked back into his mind. "The only people I had a lot of trouble with were Don's friends. Some of them really didn't like me, and as long as they weren't too open about it and didn't physically hurt me Don didn't care if they teased me... so I tended to avoid some of them."

"He never said anything?" Annie asked.

Charlie looked up to see that she was frowning again and shook his head. "He told them to cut it out a few times, when they got really bad. And I think he might of said something when they were getting really bad from time to time... It seemed to go in cycles like that. They'd tease me a little bit. It'd get worse. Then really bad. And then they'd ignore me for a while. Then it'd start all over again." Charlie shrugged. "The only times that changed was when someone outside of Don's friends tried to bully me into doing their homework for them, or letting them cheat off of me in tests, and Don found out. Then he'd be really protective for a while and his friends wouldn't go near me... The girls were always nice, though."

Anne raised an eyebrow, "Oh?"

Charlie shrugged again, "I was a pretty cute little kid, I guess. And I didn't hit puberty until just before graduation, so was always 'Don's cute little-kid brother' to them. Don didn't mind that when it meant getting more attention from girls because of me, but it bothered him whenever they paid more attention to me, especially when his friends would hang out at the house with their girlfriends."

"So you were a chick-magnet?" From her tone of voice, Anne was clearly amused.

"Yeah, I guess," Charlie shrugged again, his face a little warm. "It was nice, though. 'Bout the only thing about high school that was... Some of the girls were even smart enough to ask me to tutor them in math. That's what made me realize I'd like teaching."

"Has your relationship with your brother improved?" Anne asked, her voice soft again. "Since you graduated five years ago, I mean?"

Charlie shrugged, glancing at the nearby telephone before looking back at Anne again to answer, "I guess... We hung out a bit before we parted ways for college. Don took some went to a school in DC on a baseball scholarship. He got his bachelors in three years there and..." Charlie shook his head. "then he was playing baseball for a while, I think. Never big leagues, though... I didn't know he'd graduated early cause I was finishing up my thesis paper for my first doctorate then, and Mom said he didn't want to distract me. I didn't even go to his graduation." Charlie sighed, shaking his head again. "Though I guess he really didn't want me there. Genius-kid-brother taking the spotlight again."

"Maybe he really didn't want to distract you, Charlie." Anne offered, her voice gentle as she caught one of his hands in hers and pulled him closer to her, into a hug. "Your Mom says you get pretty focused when you're working on something. And you must have been nervous for something that big."

Charlie shrugged, relaxing a bit in her embrace, "I guess."

"You went to his graduation from Quantico, didn't you?"

"Yeah. That was last year, actually." Charlie smiled at the memory. "It was really cool."

"And Don invited you to that?"

Charlie nodded again. "Yeah. He told me about it before he left for Quantico. They train their for seventeen weeks. Then they're Special Agents, I guess... I never really did figure out how that worked." His smile faded a bit. "I only saw him a few times when we were both back for holidays during school. And I don't think we've talked on the phone more than two or three times since he joined the agency... I think he calls Mom occasionally, but I haven't spoken to him in months." Charlie sighed again, his expression downcast before he suddenly frowned, turning a mild glare towards her. "But we're getting a little off topic."

"Guess we have. You started it."

"I d—Oh. I did, didn't I? Sorry... Uh, anyway, I checked and all I saw standing outside on the porch were three blonde girls. One looked about fifteen. The other two were younger... I think." Charlie shook his head. "I know with the time of night I should have been suspicious of something, but...they just looked so harmless! So I opened the door to ask them what they needed and they said they were trying to find a friend's house that was supposed to be nearby, but they'd passed my house several times already and were wondering if they could use my phone to get directions... I offered to try to give them directions myself, but they didn't know a specific address or any landmarks I really recognized, so I said they could come in to use the phone..."

0 0 0 2 2 1 6 6 2 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

"That's a big no, no." Buffy cut in as Charlie paused, holding a hand up to forestall his equivalent of an indignant 'no duh!' before he could say anything. "I mean the invite. _Never_ verbally invite anyone inside your home, especially at night. Say something like 'it's open,' or 'are you gonna stay out there all night?' not 'come in' or 'welcome.' Or, if you can manage it, don't say anything. Just open the door and step aside, that's the easiest one. That way your visitor knows you want them to come in, but a vampire won't be able to since it's not an actual invite." She paused for a second then shrugged. "Also welcome mats are evil. Don't ever let your parents put any out."

"Right..." Charlie nodded, his eyes a little bit distant in thought. "Vampires. Right."

"Some demons can't enter a living human's home without an invite too, but most can. Though a lot of 'em won't even bother using doors... And vamps are the big one, since they're the ones you're more likely to see on your doorstep."

"...Demons, too?"

Buffy sighed, shaking her head at the slightly dazed expression on Charlie's face, taking hold of his arm, she gently drew him over to one of the nearby chairs. "Have a seat," she ordered, half-pushing him into the chair and half-holding him up to make sure he landed in it gently. Once he was firmly seated she grabbed one of the water bottles they'd brought out with them, opened it and handed it to him. "Take a small sip, and swallow" nodding as he obey she continued, "and again... and again... good." Taking the bottle back, she screwed the top on and set it on the table again before gently claiming the seat next to him and gently taking hold of one of his hands. When he finally looked at her again, his expression a little less dazed, she raised an eyebrow. "Feel better?"

That seemed to mostly snap him out of it, and he nodded. "Y-Yeah... Vampires? Demons?"

"You do remember one of the girls grabbing you and biting your neck right? ...You remember how quick she was? How strong? And the fact that you nearly died from blood loss that night despite the fact that there were only two little holes in your neck and there was barely any blood around you and only a little on your shirt afterwards?"

"...Y-Yeah. I remember. It's just... _vampires_."

Buffy laughed, offering a smile as she nodded sympathetically. "Well, this has kind of been my life for the past few years, but I do remember the shock of finding out. Don't worry, it'll pass. Like I said, it'll change a lot about how you view the world, but you're a human being, you'll adapt." '_Or intentionally forget_,' she thought, but didn't say, considering that was the way most vamp-victims reacted to the experience. But then again, most victims didn't come to her afterwards and ask what the hell happened to them.

Charlie was silent for a while after that, and Buffy let him think, watching as he seemed to stare at nothing for a few minutes. And then watching as he brought a hand up to rub his neck, only to make himself wince as he applied a little too much pressure to the newly formed scar. That seem to bring him back to himself again and his eyes met hers again as his hand dropped away from his neck. "I'm sorry for being so difficult. I just... I guess it's because I'm a scientist at heart. I'm used to being able to explain anything with math and logic but..." he shrugged a bit sheepishly, "vampires and demons are a bit out there for me."

"I remember the feeling," Buffy murmured in reply, sighing. She was silent for a long moment before she met his eyes again. "There are times the demony parts of the world still give me the wiggins, but... I guess you get used to it after a while. It doesn't seem to bother Giles, at least. And it didn't bother Merrick."

"Who are they?"

Buffy sighed at the softly spoken question. "Watchers. My Watchers. Merrick is the one that found me here in LA, told me my destiny. Got me ready. Sent me out..."

"Destiny?"

"...Yeah." Buffy paused for a moment, before shaking her head and meeting Charlie's eyes again. "I'm the Slayer. The one girl in the world Chosen to stop the spread of evil."

Charlie nodded in thought for several moments before murmuring, "I guess that's, uh, why we're still around?"

"Huh?"

"Well, most people think mankind's the top of the food chain. But from what you're saying we're really not. Vampires eat us. And demons...do they?"

"Not really. Some do. Most of the bad ones either just don't like humans and want to kill us all or they just really like killing. Or both. Actually the last two are much easier to fight then the first in groups. Easier to turn them against each other. And vampires don't eat us, per say. They drink our blood."

"The results the same, isn't it?"

"Well, yeah... You know you're actually taking this really well. Most people just don't remember. Those that do usually take a while to process it. And I get a lot of shocked silences and stupid questions."

"Whereas I'm asking smart-questions?" Charlie asked with a small, amused smile.

"Um, yeah."

Charlie shook his head, wincing as his wound ached again before frowning and asking. "Well, this one'll probably sound stupid to you. But...will I become a vampire?"

"You're not dying."

"But when I do... Say I get hit by a car tomorrow, will I wake up a vampire?"

"Actually, since you still have some of my blood in you, you might survive getting hit by a car – but that's not the point. And no." Buffy shook her head. "To become a vampire they have to suck your blood. And then you have to suck _their_ blood. It's a whole big sucking thing. Mostly, they're just gonna kill you."

"Oh. Th-That's...uh, good. Wait, what do you mean, about your blood?"

"I'm The Slayer."

"...Yes. You said that... What does that actually mean?"

Buffy sighed again. "It means I'm suppose ta protect humanity from everything that goes bump in the night. For the most part, it's a lot of vampires. But there are a bunch of demons everywhere too. There are just a lot more vampires... But I was Chosen by the Powers That Be—"

"You mean, like... God?" Charlie asked, a clear note of uncertainty in his voice.

"No. Maybe. I don't know." Buffy shook her head again. "I just met a representative of theirs a while back, he never actually said...But anyway, they're some kind of higher power," she continued, waving vaguely towards the ceiling as she made the reference, "that is responsible for keeping the balance between good and evil here on Earth. As part of doing that they... created the first Slayer, I guess. I don't know the details around that... but since then, there's always been a Slayer. One at a time. A girl around my age, or younger, with supernatural strength, speed, agility, senses, immunity to most non-mystical poisons, fast healing powers," Buffy frowned in thought as she tried to remember it all.

"How do you hunt vampires?"

"Oh! I can also sense anything supernatural... vampires are easier than anything else to find, cause slayer look for them the most. But I can sense demons too. And I have visions."

"Visions?" Charlie frowned, a strong note of skepticism in his voice.

"Yeah. I think the PTB send 'em to me. When I'm sleeping, if they know something really bad is about to happen that they want me to be aware of, they send me a vision... Or maybe all Slayers are somewhat psychic, Giles never did clear that up." Buffy raised an eyebrow at his expression. "Don't believe in psychics?"

Charlie shrugged, a small frown still set on his face. "I suppose I should reevaluate some of my beliefs but... stuff like that has always seemed so fake to me."

"Stuff like psychics and...?"

"...Numerology. Spiritual values and all of that tied to numbers..." Charlie shook his head. "I don't know. It's just, in my mind, math is an exact science."

"So the spirituality stuff bothers you."

"Yeah, I guess."

Buffy smiled, nodding. "Well, I'm not sure if it'll help, but I can tell you we actually have souls for sure."

0 0 0 3 8 1 1 8 1 2 9 5 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Charlie blinked at the revelation. He cocked his head slightly to the side, but had to abort the motion partway through as it made his neck scream in painful protest, but he still stared at 'Annie' in interest. "How do you know that?" he asked, a dozen possibilities flying through his mind before she even began answering.

"When one vamp makes another vamp, some bits of the former human's personality may still be there: specific characteristics, speech patterns, they usually even have some memories of the human life. But that's only because that is still, I think, in the physical brain. My Watcher, Giles, says when a vampire decides to turn you, your soul passes on to...somewhere. We're not sure where. Angel thought it was some kind of limbo, but he barely remembers it. Then the demonic soul takes possession of the human body as a vampire. Driven more by demonic blood lust thank anything else."

"Who's Angel?" Charlie asked, his mind immediately flying to his memory of her even as he watched her skin pale and eyes widen, suddenly full of pain for several long moments before she seemed to shake herself out of it and looked away as she answered

"Angel... Angel was a vampire who's soul was restored."

"Restored? How?"

"He was turned about two and a half centuries ago. Became a really nasty master vamp called Angelus. He and some of his kindred were call the Scourge of Europe... then he fed off a gypsy princess and the gypsy clan cursed him with the restoration of his human soul, to make him feel remorse for what he'd done."

"But..." Charlie shook his head in confusion, common sense and a few classes in psychology not following where this story was going. "He wouldn't have had any control over the vampire's actions, would he?"

"No," Annie shook her head, clear irritation in her tone and on her face clashing with some degree of what appeared to be relief at his observation. "And it wasn't a very good punishment. Demons don't feel grief or remorse. And the human soul is innocent of the demon's crime. By forcing his soul back they made him suffer for what the demon had done in his body, and to live the life of a vampire, the only one of his kind that would not prey on the innocent for over a century with demon living in his head. Taunting him. Torturing him. And after he goes through all that, he had to find that a single moment of true happiness would break his curse, sending his soul back into limbo and setting the demon free to prey upon the innocent aga—"

Anne stopped abruptly, seeming to suddenly come back to the present, her wide eyes locking with Charlie's own wide-eyed stare.

"I'm sorry, I—"

"You knew him?" Charlie asked softly, reaching out to grab one of her hands as she had released his a short time before. "Annie?"

"Y-Yeah." Anne nodded shakily, looking down toward the floor. "I... I loved him, actually."

"That must have been hard." When she didn't answer immediately, Charlie continued, his quick mind seeing how this story must have ended with all the pain this 'Angel's' name clearly brought her. "Loving him and knowing he's one of the creatures you're supposed to slay... Did his soul make him feel different at all to you?"

Anne thought about if for several long moments before she nodded. "Yeah. I didn't notice when I was just comparing him to other fledglings. But when I compared his presence to the Master's – he was a really old vamp – and when... when I compare it to what Angelus's presence felt like, there was a really big difference... If a human being is going to attack me, my slay-dar picks up a faint danger signal. When a vamp is going to attack, it's stronger. A fledgling's signal is fainter than an older vampires and much fainter than a Master-Vampire's. Angelus was a very strong Master-Vampire. Angel, unless he was actually angry or when we were sparring, didn't even feel like a fledgling. He was just... a little more dangerous than a human being. But only just."

"Still must have been hard."

"... Yeah. It kind of was. Especially with the way my Watcher and friends reacted to him. Giles and Xander hated him..."

"Why?"

"Because he was a vampire. It was really as simple as that." Anne shrugged. "I mean, I think on Xander's side it was partially jealousy at first, since he'd had a crush on me for a while. But the first vampire Xander ever staked was one of his best-friend's growing up. I think to justify it to himself after that he kept telling himself what Giles had told him that night: that he was not killing his friend, he was killing the monster that had killed his friend. I don't know. Maybe the idea that Jessie could've, maybe, been saved with a soul-spell was too much for him..."

"Could vampires be 'saved' that way?" Charlie asked curiously.

0 0 0 2 2 1 6 6 2 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Buffy thought about it a moment, then shook her head. "I don't think so... It's _not_ an easy spell, and there are a _lot_ of vampires in the world. And even if it could be done, I don't think it would necessarily work."

"Why not?"

"Well, for the ones that have been vamps awhile, it would be a horrible punishment for their human soul. And for the younger ones..." She shook her head again. "I think that might actually be worse. Because even Angel, an older master vampire, had trouble controlling demonic urges from time to time. The bloodlust, sun-phobia, crosses... _everything_. All it might take to destroy the human soul is a slight loss of control near an innocent. And it's not like all human beings are innocents, either. I'd rather not stick the legal system with a bunch of vampires with restored human souls that still continue to kill humans." Buffy paused again, wincing before finishing with, "I mean, regular human murderers get off with insanity-pleas already, don't they? All a vampire would have to do to prove they have no control of their actions is have someone shove across in their face and say that the demon that's also inhabiting their body did it."

"There are evil humans out there," Charlie nodded in agreement. Thinking of the work his brother's life now revolved around.

"Yeah," Buffy nodded. "And I really don't think we need to bring them into the supernatural world."

Charlie nodded slightly then stilled for a moment, his entire focus apparently focused on one thought before he blinked and turned his eyes to hers again. "Annie...Can I – Can _we_ tell my parents about this...please?"

"Have they asked you about the attack?" Buffy asked with a frown, as she hadn't heard them ask Charlie anything about that night since they'd sat in the hospital room, listening to two LAPD detectives take his statement on the 'break in.'

"No, but they must wonder—"

"Charlie," Buffy cut him off gently, shaking her head. "Most people _don't_ want to know about the supernatural. Most people seem to have this subconscious inclination to avoid it at all costs. Usually when I save people from vampires they'll thank me at the time, then the next time I see them they'll ask me if I saw them the night before, because they don't remember. Cops, when they see links to the supernatural, almost always overlook or over-evaluate every clue that points to the supernatural activity, they make jokes about it or try to rationalize it. Or they just forget about it. The case isn't solved, it just becomes another cold case that will never be seriously reconsidered or a journalist writes an article about it and attracts a demon hunter. Or the Slayer."

"But Mom and Dad—"

"Are human too. And they haven't asked, have they?" Buffy sighed when he shook his head but his expression clearly stated he wasn't convinced. "If you really need to tell them, we can, but... When I tried to tell my parents about it, they put me in an asylum for a few months while they got a divorce. And when I brought it up again after my Mom was attacked by a vampire that I staked right in front of her she kicked me out of the house."

If anything, this seemed to shock Charlie more than the revelations of vampires and demons. "I'm sorry, Annie."

"Thanks, I guess," she replied with a shrug, shaking her head again. "If you really want to tell them, I'd say pick one and tell them by themselves. Don't tell them together, that gives them the opportunity to deny it together, and reassure each other... From what I've seen, your Mom's more likely to give us the benefit of the doubt on something like this."

"'Cause she's more superstitious then Dad?" Charlie asked with a frown, thinking of some of the times she'd joked about old superstitions and whatnot. That's all they'd ever been though, jokes.

"Somewhat. But also because I've seen her glance at you neck a few times and look at the... where it happened a few times too. I've never seen your Dad look at your neck."

"So she's... curious?"

"Yeah. Maybe she's seen some of the supernatural before, and her maternal instincts are making the connection. Maybe it's something else entirely... but I still think she's the best choice..." Raising an eyebrow, Buffy then commented. "Though I'm really surprised you haven't asked for some kind of proof that I'm not nuts already."

"...What kind of proof could you give me?" Charlie asked, a clear note of hesitation in his voice.

Buffy shrugged again. "I could take you on patrol, I guess. LA's not as active as the Hellmouth, but there are still quite a few vamps and demons lurking hereabouts."

* * *

_**End of Chapter 3: What Goes Bump In The Night? – Part I**_

**

* * *

**

AN: Well, there's Chapter 3! And the next chapter is pretty much done. I just have to proof-read it and decide I don't hate it.

**A beta-reader would probably be really helpful too.**

**Please review and tell me what you think so far... I've mostly figured out what's happening in this part of the series, but suggestions would still be appreciated.**

* * *

**NEXT: **_**Chapter 4: What Goes Bump In The Night? – Par**__**t II**_

**

* * *

**

Bye for now! ^_^

**Jess S**


	5. Chapter 4: What Goes Bump In The Night?

**Disclaimers: ****Buffy the Vampire Slayer**** belongs to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy & Fox. ****Numb3rs**** belongs to CBS. The song **_**World So Cold**_** belongs to 12 Stones. (NOT ME!!!) **

**Summary: **While struggling to ignore her destiny and forget the tragedies that resulted from it, Buffy is drawn to save an innocent and makes a new friend in the process. And Charlie learns that there's more to the world than he'd ever imagined.

**Warnings: None that I can think of…**

**AN: Thanks to my new beta-reader for ****First Meeting****, **_**katgurl**_**, for proof-reading this chapter and helping me get it out so quickly.**

**First Meeting**__

_**Part I in Mathematics & Magic**_

By Jess S

_**Chapter 4: What Goes Bump In The Night?**_

_**Part II**_

_**City Streets, Los Angeles, California – Saturday, June 28, 1996**_

0 0 0 3 1 3 1 1 8 1 2 9 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Charlie glanced around the dark streets nervously, not at all sure of what he was supposedly to be looking for and as a result stuck following Annie's lead quite blindly. It was unsettling, but a part of him was excited too. He loved learning new things, and as frightening as the world of the supernatural inherently was, there was nothing that could be perceived as any more unknown to him.

That hadn't ended up going on this so-called 'patrol' for more than a week after he'd finally cornered Annie and learned the truth.

For one thing, Charlie was still supposedly recovering from his injuries.

In all actuality, Annie's blood had made short work of his injuries. While Charlie hadn't healed as quickly as Annie would have from such injuries, he had still been better much more quickly than his parents could have imagined or comprehended.

According to Annie, when her body was in peak physical condition it would have made up for the blood loss in very little time: two hours tops, the most severe of her bruises would have faded overnight, and even the concussion would have quickly disappeared.

Charlie hadn't healed that fast. But he had healed much more quickly then he'd been expecting, and had needed to struggle to keep this fact from his concerned parents, who hadn't wanted to let him out of their sight.

Nonetheless, a week after their discussion in the garage, he had finally talked his parents into letting him go into downtown LA with Annie. Charlie strongly suspected that the fact that he wanted to go on what sounded to them like date with a pretty girl was a large part of why they'd relented last night and happily waived the two off as they'd left on foot this evening.

They'd eaten a quick dinner at one of the small restaurants in Pasadena before taking a taxi to one of the clubs in LA. Annie somehow knew after only a few moments surrounded by the flashing light and loud music that there were no vampires in that particular club, so they'd left and gone to another club. They'd done this again, and again, before Annie decided they might be better off just walking around like they were now. Charlie wasn't sure how he felt about that. On one hand, the music in the crowed clubs had been awful, on the other, dancing with Annie had been a lot of fun.

"Hey," Annie's soft, teasing voice brought his mind back to the present as she laid a gentle hand on his shoulder and drew his eyes to her again. Her smile was teasing too, but her eyes were serious. "Relax, Charlie. You don't have anything to worry about."

Charlie blinked, glancing around again before meeting her eyes again. "My common sense disagrees. We're wandering around dark alleys late at night in the middle of a dangerous city, you know. And we're looking for monsters that would like to eat us."

"Yeah," Annie nodded in agreement, still smiling as she linked arms with him and drew him further down the sidewalk from where he hadn't realized he'd stopped during his internal monologue. "But you're doing this with the Slayer. And I really do know what I'm doing, you know. I may be a little rusty, but I won't let anything happen to you."

"I know that," Charlie cut in quickly, before shaking his head. "I guess I'm still just trying to process everything..."

"That's normal," Annie told him gently, her own eyes taking a slightly introspective look as she continued. "The first few weeks after Merrick told me I was the Slayer I spent a part of almost every patrol questioning my sanity." Suddenly she tensed, her mind coming back to the present. "Keep your cross and water gun handy," she ordered, her voice firm as she suddenly released his arm and started... _stalking_ – there was really no other word for it – down the sidewalk towards the next alley. "And stay behind me."

Charlie froze for a second as his ears picked up sounds from the nearby alley, sending his mind back to his own initial encounter with vampires.

Struggles.

_Struggling, unable to move while a figure much smaller than himself but with muscles of steel was holding him firmly in place in a bruising grip._

Gasping.

_Gasping as a sharp pain shoots through his neck followed by a heightened sensation of pain and weakness rushing through his body as all his blood seemed to rush towards his neck._

Sobbing.

_Sobbing, as his strength waned, his vision began to fade and his breath grew short._

He was suddenly drawn out of his flashback by Annie's voice, though now her tone was hard and mocking as she stood at the entrance to the alley, gazing inward. "Don't you boys have anything better to do on a Saturday night?"

As Annie started moving further into the alley with the slow, stalking steps of a predator on the hunt once again, Charlie hurriedly shook himself out of his thoughts and moved to follow her. He heard a male voice snap something back at Annie, but couldn't make out what they said and a moment later sounds of fighting broke out.

By the time he reached the mouth of the alley the air was filled with stale dust and a figure was running towards him. Without his mind taking any part in the decision, the hand that was holding a large cross suddenly flew up and the vampire that was running towards him stopped abruptly, seeming to fling himself backwards with a snarl just before he exploded into dust.

As the dust settled he blinked and saw Annie turn from obviously having thrown something at the vampire's back to crouch near a younger teenage girl further down the alley.

After a brief, poignant pause he hurried over to them. "Is she okay?"

Annie looked up and nodded before turning her eyes back to the girl as she responded, her voice surprisingly gentle. "She'll be fine. Won't you, sweet heart?"

Charlie watched over the course of the next several moments as Buffy gently coaxed the slightly younger teen to her feet and led her out of the alley. Then he watched in surprise as the girl mumbled a tearful 'thank you' before wandering off in a daze. "Shouldn't we—"

"We'll follow her," Annie cut in, before shaking her head. "But she's already started to suppress it. Our presence isn't something she wants right now."

"But she'll be okay?"

"Yeah, we'll make sure she gets home all right. And when the sun comes up tomorrow she will have forgotten all about this. Probably assume she got drunk the night before, or something similar."

"Isn't... Isn't she a little young to make that assumption?"

Annie raised an eyebrow at him. "She's probably fifteen. High school age... You really think a girl like her doesn't go to the high school and college parties with booze?"

Charlie's frown deepened as he glanced back at the blonde they were following from a few blocks away before looking back at the blonde next to him. "Should you really be making judgments on blondes?"

Annie laughed, a smiling lighting up her features. "She looks just like me a few years ago and trust me, I knew where the parties were then... Don't have much time now, of course. But I did then."

They walked in silence for several moments before Charlie broke it. "How... How long do you usually patrol?"

"When I was doing it regularly on the Hellmouth?" Annie shrugged. "From about eleven o'clock at night or midnight to four or four thirty in the morning... Don't worry, I'm not gonna keep you out that long."

"Is that why we haven't seen many vampires?" Charlie asked, glancing at his watch to confirm that it was just past ten o'clock.

"Yeah. It's still a bit early for them to be out and about... But this isn't the Hellmouth, either."

"What's the Hellmouth?"

Annie's eyes didn't move from watching the blonde they were trailing as she responded in a soft, even tone. "It's a point on Earth that's connected to a Hell dimension, where some of that evil can leak through into our world, drawing all the baddies to it."

"There's more than one?"

Annie frowned but nodded, "I think so. I remember my first Watcher, Merrick, mentioning them at one point. He said 'Hellmouths', plural. Never mentioned one was so close, or I probably wouldn't have moved there after his death. All Giles has ever referred to is the one in Sunnydale, though. So that must be one of the bigger ones."

"Sunnydale?" Charlie frowned in thought for several moments before nodding, "That's just a few hours south of here on the freeway, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"There's a Hellmouth there?"

"Yeah. Under the high school."

Charlie stopped for a moment as his mind hurried to contemplate that strange thought before he noticed his friend drawing away and hurried to catch up with her. "That's..." he shook his head. "That's just wrong."

"On many, many levels, I know." Annie nodded in agreement, before chuckling softly.

"What?"

"Adds a whole new dimension to the high school is hell idea, though, doesn't it?"

Charlie chuckled also. "It does at that." He shook his head after that. "I hated high school, you know. And I was only there for three years."

"Most people I've met weren't too fond of those years, or still aren't if they're going through them."

"Do you think the school was deliberately built on the Hellmouth, or was the school being where it was—"

"No, the school didn't create the Hellmouth." Annie smiled at him. "There'd be a lot more of them if that were the case. And I asked Giles a while back about that. There used to be a Church on top of the Hellmouth. Then it was buried in an earthquake and the school was built on top of it. But the Hellmouth was there first. It was there when the Spanish first came here. Probably before that."

"Oh. Okay."

"_Finally_." Annie muttered, and Charlie looked up to see the blonde they were following hailing a cab. After she'd gotten in and the cab had driven off, Annie turned back to Charlie with a smile. "Okay. Now we just have one more place to go to."

"We do?"

"Yeah. You've only seen vampires, so far, right?"

"Umm…yeah?"

"You still have to see demons, right?"

"Uh... I-I guess?"

"So we have to go to a demon bar."

Charlie stared at her for a moment before blurting out, "A _what?!_"

0 0 0 2 2 1 6 6 2 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 7 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Buffy smiled slightly at Charlie's stunned expression as they entered _Caritas_. Of all the demonic hang-outs in the city, this was certainly the safest to take him to, so long as Charlie remembered to listen to the instructions she'd given him earlier. And it definitely had more then enough demons on display... and vampires, she noticed with a little wince before shrugging it aside. "You want something to drink?"

Charlie seemed to shake himself out of his little daze to turn a frown at her. "I'm nineteen. And you're younger than me. You can't get alcohol."

Buffy raised an eyebrow. "Why do you think I'm younger than you?"

"Annie, there's no way your even eighteen. I don't know how you got the doctors to believe otherwise, but I'm not stupid, and my parents aren't either."

The Slayer shifted, a bit uncomfortably. "They haven't said anything... but I never lied to them, or you. I just wrote that I was twenty-something on the hospital records so that they'd let me donate blood."

"Twenty-something?" Charlie shook his head. "Obviously they weren't paying much attention."

"Thanks, I think... so do you want something?" When the older boy shot her a half glare she rolled her eyes. "If I go up to that bar and order two beers, I'll get two beers," Buffy told him with a chuckle, nodding towards the bartender that was watching her with a clearly frightened expression fixed on his just as clearly non-human visage. "But I was thinking of getting a diet coke. Want one?"

"Uh, yeah," Charlie shrugged sheepishly, before reaching for his wallet. "Let me get it."

"They won't charge me for it." Buffy stopped him. "Demon bars never do. They don't dare."

"Well in the case of _Caritas_, baby-doll, I just like you too much to charge you a cent. Not that you ever drink enough for it to matter."

Buffy turned to the club's approaching owner with a smile, "Lorne!" she stepped forward to meet him in a hug half-way, still smiling brightly. "How are you?"

"Business was going well this evening," he raised a green eyebrow at her. "I hope it can continue to do so?"

Buffy rolled her eyes, "I'm not hunting, Lorne, Slayers-honor. Just introducing Charlie to all that goes bump in the night."

"So I see," the Anagogic demon remarked, smiling as he turned towards Charlie. "And who is this cutie-pie?"

"I'm Charlie Eppes," Charlie responded quickly, hesitating a moment before offering his hand to shake with the demon.

"Had a recent run-in with a vampire, did you, Charlie?" Lorne questioned as he caught the teenager's hand and shook it firmly, not releasing it as he tiled his head to the side to scrutinize the young human more closely.

"Uh, y-yeah. Actually," Charlie stuttered with a frowned, "Just a few weeks ago."

"So I see," the green-skinned demon remarked again, glancing between Buffy and Charlie for a moment before smiling brightly once again. "Well, I am Krevlornswath of the Deathwok Clan, also known as Lorne and The Host and Owner of _Caritas_. You are welcome to call me Lorne, of course, provided you swear to make no Lorne Greene jokes in my presence."

"Uh, um, okay?" Charlie murmured, blinking for a moment before seeming to come to his senses once more. "It's nice to meet you, Lorne."

"Swell!" the demon smiled again, giving Charlie's hand another quick shake before finally releasing it. "And now you must sing for us."

"Wh-What?"

Buffy suppressed a smirk, forcing a small smile into its place when Charlie looked at her in confusion. "Don't look at me."

"Perhaps I should explain, buttercup. See, I'm an Anagogic demon. Means I can read auras, emotions, sometimes minds and futures, too. But only when the being of interest is either in extreme emotional distress or singing. I founded _Caritas_ after arriving just a few months ago, to serve as a safe haven for all and the karaoke helps me get to know my clientele. And a friend of the Slayer is – while also hopefully a friend of mine – a client I want to know well. Therefore you must get up on stage, pick a song, and sing your heart out. Go on." He gave the befuddled teenager a shove towards the stage.

Buffy nodded when Charlie looked back at her, "Go ahead, Charlie. I'll be waiting right here," she reassured him with a smile, honestly curious what _Caritas'_ Host would see when her new friend sang.

"But-But I don't sing!" Charlie protested even as several of the other surrounding clientele seemed to catch onto the Host and the Slayer's directions and started to shove Charlie gently along toward the stage, being particularly gentle after a not-quite-gentle-enough shove early on earned a sharp glare from the Slayer.

"What, and you think _he_ _does?_" Lorne called after him with a smile, nodding with a wince towards the vampire that was just finishing up a Backstreet Boys song.

0 0 0 3 1 3 1 1 8 1 2 9 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Charlie wasn't sure what he would have said if anyone had asked him what he was expecting when Annie told him they were going to a bar for demons. But whatever it was, this truly could not be it. The fact that it only took them fifteen minutes to walk to the bar clued him into the fact that it had probably been their destination all evening, which he would later agree made sense after learning that this particular bar was a sanctuary for all demons and supernatural beings.

Of course, the sanctity of the place might be considered debatable if he put too much thought into the orders Annie had given him before they'd entered. Essentially don't leave the bar without her. Listen to Lorne – someone he'd apparently meet there. Do not make deals of any kind with anyone. _Do not wish for anything._ For some reason that had required additional emphasis. Don't go to the bathroom without telling Annie first. And make sure he's always in her line of sight. Shouldn't be too hard, he didn't plan on leaving without her, after all.

When they walked through the metal detector at the door, it went off on Annie. Probably because she was carrying a large number of weapons, but after sparing the Slayer's face a second glance, and obviously realizing who she was, the two very large bouncers stepped back and let them through. One of them even bowed to Annie as she passed, but she did not acknowledge it.

Other than being very, very large the bouncers looked mostly human to him. It was only on second glance that he realized that the proportions of their massive forms were a bit off. Their enormous hands were too large. And they were probably seven feet tall. And their eyes were red. Other than that, though, they looked human. Most of the beings inside the bar itself, did _not_.

Some looked more human than others, with deformities similar to those of the vampire's he'd seen earlier. Some other disfigurements were significantly more pronounced. Others had green skin. Some actually had scales. A few had fur. Some had horns. There were a few tails wagging on the dance floor. Many had large claws and teeth. And there were a _lot_ of bright, glowing eyes.

The demon that was up on stage, in fact, seemed to be a strange concoction of most of these differences. It had purple, scaly skin and red eyes. Claws and teeth. Red eyes. A lot of fur along its arms. And it did have a tail, and horns... And it was singing about sunshine and roses.

"You want something to drink?"

Charlie started at Annie's question, and blinked at the stage again before turning his full attention back to her. He shook his head with a frown as her question registered. "I'm nineteen. And you're younger than me. You can't get alcohol."

Annie responded with a raised eyebrow, "Why do you think I'm younger than you?"

Charlie looked at her for a moment and then shook his head, frowning. "Annie, there's no way your even eighteen. I don't know how you got the doctors to believe otherwise, but I'm not stupid, and my parents aren't either."

At that the blonde shifted, finally seeming uncomfortable with the subject. "They haven't said anything... but I never lied to them, or you. I just wrote that I was twenty-something on the hospital records so that they'd let me donate blood."

At that Charlie raised an eyebrow, shaking his head again. "Twenty-something? Obviously they weren't paying much attention."

"Thanks, I think... so do you want something?" She actually rolled her eyes when he glared at her and continued before he could think of a suitable response, actually chuckling as she finished. "If I go up to that bar and order two beers, I'll get two beers," she told him, nodding toward the bartender.

Turning his head slightly to look himself he saw that the bartender was also a demon, and was watching Annie with an expression of clear fright fixed on his blue-ish, green face. Remembering the deferential treatment the bouncers had shown her, he supposed it shouldn't be surprising that she could expect the same from all the other employees. But then again, it sounded like Slayers were basically the police, judges, juries and executioners of the supernatural world. So he guessed that really did make sense too.

"But I was thinking of getting a diet coke. Want one?"

Charlie started again, shrugging a bit sheepishly at the clear amusement on the blonde's face, he reached for his wallet. "Uh, yeah. Let me get it."

Annie stopped him with a gentle hand on his and a shake of her head. "They won't charge me for it. Demon bars never do. They don't dare."

Before he could protest this further evidence of what in the human world would certainly be considered police brutality a cheery voice distracted him.

"Well in the case of Caritas, baby-doll, I just like you too much to charge you a cent. Not that you ever drink enough for it to matter."

Charlie turned as Annie also did, watching as she approached a demon with green skin, red eyes, horns and a rather flashy suit with a bright smile fixed on her face and easily stepped up to hug him. Well, he guessed it also made sense that she would be on friendly terms with some demons... Probably meant that he didn't eat humans, from what she'd mentioned earlier.

"Lorne! How are you?"

"Business was going well this evening, I hope it can continue to do so?"

This earned an eye-roll from Annie, "I'm not hunting, Lorne, Slayers-honor. Just introducing Charlie to all that goes bump in the night."

"So I see," 'Lorne' replied in a strangely confident way as he turned to offer Charlie a smile that the mathematician hesitantly returned. "And who is this cutie-pie?"

Charlie blinked again in surprise at Lorne's form of addressed but stepped forward quickly, offering his hand and hoping that it was a proper way to greet a demon. "I'm Charlie Eppes."

"Had a recent run-in with a vampire, did you, Charlie?" Lorne asked

Again Charlie felt like the demon's red eyes could see right through him. His neck was covered after all, and the demon sounded supremely confident in his statement. But then again, perhaps some demons had x-ray vision. Or maybe he could read minds. Charlie wasn't sure what to think of that. Remembering he'd been asked a question, Charlie offered a belated, hurried nod and stuttered in reply, "Uh, y-yeah. Actually... Just a few weeks ago."

"So I see," the green-skinned demon remarked again, and Charlie saw him glance at Annie before his red eyes returned to him and a smile stretched across the demon's face. "Well, I am Krevlornswath of the Deathwok Clan, also known as Lorne and The Host and owner of Caritas. You are welcome to call me Lorne, of course, provided you swear to make no Lorne Greene jokes in my presence."

"Uh, um, okay?" Charlie wasn't entirely sure on who 'Lorne Greene' was, but he could see where the joke would come from. "It's nice to meet you, Lorne."

"Swell!" the demon smiled again, giving Charlie's hand another quick shake before finally releasing it. "And now you must sing for us."

"Wh-What?" Charlie stuttered again, turning confused eyes to Annie only to receive a clearly suppressed smirk in return.

"Don't look at me."

"Perhaps I should explain, buttercup." Lorne cut in, before Charlie could respond in frustration to Annie's reply. "See I'm an Anagogic demon. Means I can read auras, emotions, sometimes minds and futures, too. But only when the being of interest is either in extreme emotional distress or singing. I founded _Caritas_ after arriving just a few months ago, to serve as a safe haven for all and the karaoke helps me get to know my clientele. And a friend of the Slayer is – while also hopefully a friend of mine – a client I want to know well. Therefore you must get up on stage, pick a song, and sing your heart out. Go on."

His mind hurrying to process all of the supernatural information, Charlie wasn't able to object as his host began to push him towards the stage. He looked back at Annie again, hoping for a rescue but only received an amused nod again, though this time her smile seemed more honest, if clearly curious.

"Go ahead, Charlie. I'll be waiting right here."

As several members of the surrounding clientele began to drag and push him up towards the stage, Charlie struggled to turn slightly and protest, "But-But I don't sing!"

The Host was smiling as he called back, "What, and you think _he_ does?" with a nod toward the vampire that was just finishing up a Backstreet Boys song.

Charlie winced. Well, he did have a point... but he seriously never sang. He liked music well-enough, he'd just never been drawn to actually attempting it himself. He made instruments to get out of piano lessons as a kid, yeah. And making noise had held the same appeal to him that it had to any other kid his age, but that was the extent of his knowledge.

As he finally reached the stage he licked his lips for a moment at all the eyes that were focused on him before telling himself to act like they were just like the students he helped as a Teacher's Aid at Princeton last year and might soon be teaching as a professor himself. Then he made himself walk over to the DJ who –looked mostly human... except his skin was orange and his eyes were purple and – was watching him expectantly. "Do... Do you have a list of songs to choose from?"

"Sure, kid," the demonic-DJ grinned, and Charlie saw his teeth were a bit pointy to before his attention was directed to the monitor of the DJ's laptop as he began to rapidly scroll through songs. "Tell me when ya see somethin'."

After several moments of scrolling one song finally caught his eye. "That one's fine," he said, pointing it out and received a nod in reply before he was handed a microphone and pushed back up onto the stage.

"'Words'll be on the monitor," the DJ-demon told him and Charlie glanced down to see the song title popping up on said monitor.

"Okay," Charlie murmured, shrugging his shoulders a bit and trying to shake out the tension that was building there. "I can do this, I can do this..." he shot a glare at Annie but received only an over-bright smile in return before the music started. He tapped his foot for a moment, finding the familiar beat before he finally took a deep breath, brought the mike up to his lips, and started to sing:

_It starts with pain, followed by hate_

_Fueled by the endless questions, No one can answer._

_A stain covers your heart, tears you apart, just like a sleeping cancer…_

0 0 0 2 2 1 6 6 2 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 7 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Buffy smiled at Charlie's choice as he started to sing. She didn't know it all that well, but it certainly seemed to fit the past few weeks of the young genius's life. She glanced at her host and raised an eyebrow at his contemplative look as he watched the genius sing. She could wait for him to finish his inspection before badgering him for details. It helped that Charlie actually had a really good voice... though he needed lessons in breath control, but for a beginner he was still pretty good. Certainly better than all the others that had performed here earlier this evening.

_And I don't believe men are born to be killers._

_And I don't believe the world can't be saved._

_How did you did you get here and when did start?_

_An innocent child with a thorn in his heart._

"Well," Lorne murmured quietly, turning to her with a smile as Charlie continued to sing. "I can tell you that you made a pretty good catch this time, if that's what you want to know."

Buffy raised an eyebrow, "You're not just saying that cause he doesn't sound too bad, unlike some of your earlier performers?"

_What kind of world are we living?  
Where love is divided by hate.  
Losing control of our feelings  
We all must be dreaming this life away.  
In a world so cold._

"My inner eye doesn't lie, baby doll," Lorne shook his head. "And that one right there is gonna do some great things. Seems you found the modern-day Einstein, hmm?"

Buffy laughed before smiling as she replied. "I actually already knew that. It's hard to miss... So he's gonna be okay, then?"

_Are you sane? Where's the shame?  
A moment of time passes by, you cannot rewind.  
Who's to blame? Where did it start?  
Is there a cure for your sickness?  
Have you no heart?_

"Oh is _that_ what this is about?" the Anagogic demon raised an eyebrow before nodding in reply. "Yeah, this one has a real bright future ahead of him. It's kinda nice to see down here."

Buffy let out a relieved sigh she hadn't been fully aware she was holding in. "Good. He deserves it..."

_And I don't believe men are born to be killers.  
And I don't believe the world can't be saved.  
How did you did you get here and when did start?  
An innocent child with a thorn in his heart._

"So do you, baby doll." Lorne offered after a moment of listening. He continued before Buffy could comment. "So are you taking up your mantle again?"

Buffy sighed again, this one more depressed then relieved. "I don't know..." she glanced at the stage again and shook her head. "If I'd ignored my instincts the night he was attacked he would have died... He almost did."

"But you saved him," Lorne pointed out a bit unnecessarily, and Buffy saw that his eyes were focused on the stage again.

_What kind of world are we living?  
Where love is divided by hate.  
Losing control of our feelings_

"Yeah." Buffy nodded in agreement, also turning to watch Charlie. "And I really have to wonder how many great people have died because... I ran away? How many miracles will they not be able to accomplish?"

Lorne shrugged. "There are many threats to the innocents around the world, baby doll. And there's only one of you."

_We're Dreaming this life away  
What kind of world do we live in?  
Where love is divided by hate.  
_

"Yeah." Buffy nodded again, before sighing again. "But that doesn't mean I was right to give up."

Lorne shrugged, "Not really my place to say, Slayer. If you wanta sing for me after your little star here, I might be able to give you a few real pointers."

Buffy laughed, shaking her head. "Maybe another time."

"Can't blame me for trying, baby doll," Lorne offered a grin, before his expression turned unexpectedly grim. "Though, if you're thinking of taking up your role again, you might want a heads up."

_Selling our souls for no reason,  
We all must be dreaming this life away.  
In a world so cold._

Buffy blinked, giving her green-skinned friend her full attention at his serious tone. "On what?"

"Now, I don't know any of the particulars, really. But I do know that another portal to a different dimension from mine has been opening a lot lately somewhere not too far from here. And that a lot of runaways have been disappearing. And a lot of old homeless people have been appearing out of nowhere."

_There's a sickness inside you that wants to escape._

_It's a feeling you get when you can't find your way._

_So how many times must you fall to your knees?_

_Never, Never, Never, Never, Never do this again._

Buffy frowned, taking a sip of the soda the bartender had brought her a few moments before as she considered what the Pylean demon was telling her. It was much easier to Giles and Willow do the thinking for her a lot of the time, but she wasn't stupid and could do it herself, if she had too. "...Time moves differently in some dimensions, right?"

"It does indeed, baby doll. Not in Pylea, but other dimensions do."

"So the old homeless people could be the runaways?"

"Could be. Almost certainly are, actually. I know one of 'em used to sing here occasionally, and she wandered in a few days ago decades older than she'd been the week before. Didn't know who she was, either."

_It starts with pain, followed by hate._

_And I don't believe men are born to be killers,_

_And I don't believe our world can't be saved._

Buffy sighed again after several moments of contemplation. "So I should start looking into the homeless shelters around here for younger humans." She raised an eyebrow at her green-skinned friend. "Anything else you can give me?"

"Not this evenin', sweet cheeks."

"Well, thanks for the heads up, then... Little out of character for you though, isn't it?" she asked, having heard his 'neutrality policy' a few times before.

The green-skinned demon shrugged, eyes turned back towards the stage. "It's interfering with business. I don't like loosing regulars."

Buffy smiled, knowing that while he'd protest her slaying some of the more vicious demons that frequented his bar he didn't really mind it. Throw the nice people that sing for him into the mix and suddenly he spoke up. Shaking her head slightly even as she too turned to watch Charlie finish, her smile widened at the stunned look on his face when he received a standing ovation from the full bar at the end of his song.

_What kind of world are we living?_

_Where love is divided by hate._

_Losing control of our feelings_

_We're Dreaming this life away_

_What kind of world do we live in?_

_Where love is divided by hate._

_Selling our souls for no reason,_

_We all must be dreaming this life away._

_In a world so cold._

_In a world so cold!_

"A real bright little star right there," Lorne murmured, offering her a small smile as Charlie looked around with that stunned expression on his face before taking a quick bow, handing his microphone back to the DJ and climbing quickly off the stage, clearly intent on making his way back to them. "Uh oh. You might wanta meet him half-way, baby doll."

"What? Why?" Buffy demanded, looking around for a threat and only seeing a lot of cheering demons and one human man making his way towards Charlie. She stared at him a little more closely, focusing her slay-senses on him for a moment, before frowning as he registered as fully human. She didn't even sense too much magic coming off of him...

"That would be Lindsey McDonald, a rising big-shot at Wolfram and Hart."

Buffy frowned, "He's a lawyer?"

"Yeah. For Hell Incorporated." Lorne explained, shaking his head at her obvious ignorance. "They represent just about anyone who's evil. Evil humans. Vampires. Demons. They'll get anyone off for a price. He's one of their best. And anyone from Wolfram & Hart showing an interest in your little star isn't, I'm thinking, in his best interests. Specially since that particular one sings all the time, and has a great set of pipes but a soul that's a black hole to your source of sunshine."

"You're probably right. Thanks, Lorne," Buffy murmured, handing him her half-finished drink before hurrying to intercept Charlie before the lawyer got anywhere near him.

0 0 0 3 1 3 1 1 8 1 2 9 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Charlie shook his head as he held the door open for 'Annie' before following her into the Craftsman, unsurprised to see the lights in the living room still on.

"Have a good time, you two?" his mother asked, slipping a bookmark into her book and setting it on the coffee table beside her chair as she rose to greet them.

"I had a great time, Mrs. Eppes." Annie replied with a brilliant smile, before raising an eyebrow at him. "How 'bout you, Charlie, what'd you think?"

Charlie laughed, shaking his head again. "Surprisingly, I did too. Thanks, Annie." At his mother's inquisitive look he elaborated. "She dragged me to a karaoke bar. And _then_ she made me sing!"

His Mom laughed, smiling at the pair. "Well, I'm glad you enjoyed yourselves. Though I was getting a bit worried at the time."

"Mom, I'm not a kid anymore, remember? Besides, Don's job is way more dangerous then mine... well, when I get the professorship, anyway."

"You will, dear. You really don't have anything to worry about, the Dean at CalSci was really very impressed with you. And Professor Fleinhardt probably put in a lot of good words as well, since he transferred there from Princeton."

"I know, but..." Charlie shrugged, shaking his head. "I really want this job."

"I'm sure you'll get it, Charlie," Annie spoke up, her soft voice warm as she continued to smile. "When do you find out?"

Charlie shrugged, shaking his head a bit. "Some time soon, I think. If I'm going to teach classes in September, after all, I have to be a professor by July at least, don't I?" Both ladies nodded in agreement even as Charlie looked around, a bit surprised. "Where's Dad?"

"In bed. He tried to wait up for you, but he has an early day tomorrow, so after midnight was pushing it for him."

Noticing that the clock on the wall said it was close to one o'clock in the morning, Charlie nodded with a frown. "You really didn't have to wait up for us, Mom."

She shrugged, "I know, dear. But I wanted to." She drew him into a hug and placed a gentle kiss on his forehead before heading over to Annie to do the same. "I'm glad you both had a good time. And now I'll head to bed. You can tell me all about your karaoke bar in the morning, all right?"

"Sure, Mom. Sleep well."

"Good night, Mrs. Eppes."

"I told you, Annie. Call me Maggie or Margaret." His Mom shook his head at the younger blonde woman, still smiling as she bid them both goodnight and headed for the stairs. "Good night."

**End** _**Chapter 4: What Goes Bump In The Night? - Part II**_

**AN: Well, what'd you think? **

**I searched for a song that would really fit Charlie's personality but couldn't find one that had lyrics. There was one video on YouTube that did a great AMV for him, but the song had no lyrics. :-( So I ended up picking a song that seemed to fit the situation and Charlie's reaction to it.**

**I know I'm pushing it having Buffy know Lorne already, but I figured she has to have wandered around as the Slayer a few times and... I wanted Charlie to meet Lorne. Creative Writers license. **

**Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. Reviews are always welcome and appreciated!**

**Bye! ^_^**

**Jess S**

**NEXT: **_**Chapter 5: Demon Hunting**_**.**


	6. Chapter 5: Demon Hunting I

**Disclaimers: ****Buffy the Vampire Slayer**** belongs to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy & Fox. ****Numb3rs**** belongs to CBS. (NOT ME!!!)  
AN: Thanks again to **_**katgurl**_**, for proof-reading this chapter.**

* * *

**First Meeting**

_**Part I in Mathematics & Magic**_

By Jess S

_**Chapter 5: Demon Hunting**_

_**Part I**_

_**Streets, Los Angeles, California – July 3, 1996 – Late Evening**_

0 0 0 2 2 1 6 6 2 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 7 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

"I'm...nobody."

Buffy sighed as yet another homeless old man turned from her and stumbled away, shaking her head. She'd been looking for clues on Lorne's tip for nearly a week now and had still yet to find anything other than a lot of sapped, hopeless old people that said they were either 'nobody' or 'no one,' all amounting to the same thing.

After a few minutes of following the old man to see if he'd go anywhere near the other victims, she shook her head as he continued to just wander in a daze and decided to head home for the evening.

The only vamps she'd seen recently had been in _Caritas_, which was a sanctuary for all. She knew that undoubtedly meant that they all knew she was hear now, and hoped that their knowing didn't equal the Watcher's Council knowing.

She was enjoying living with the Eppes family. She missed her own home, her mom and her friends, but the affectionate and welcoming atmosphere the elder Eppes provided combined with Charlie's curiosity, compassion and concern, offered enough contrasts to keep her comfortable.

And her dreams were slowly but surely improving...

Now instead of dreaming about seeing Angel again only to kill him she was just getting visions from the Powers That Be again...though that wasn't necessarily an improvement, she thought the change was a good thing. Cause the newer dreams didn't have her waking in tears and starting each day depressed.

Not working at Helen's Kitchen any more helped too. It hadn't taken long to realize that living with the Eppes and working at the diner weren't going to work very well. She didn't have a car, and though she _could_ run to work in a little under an hour, the Eppes parents certainly didn't know that she could put a cheetah to shame without breaking a sweat. And Charlie, who did, didn't think it was good for her. Working at the diner or going there. So Mrs. Eppes had driven her there to drop her uniform off and turn in her ID a few days after she'd taken Charlie on patrol.

She'd thought about looking for another job, but when she brought it up at dinner a few nights back 'Maggie' Eppes always mentioned she could use a secretary for some of her work, if she felt up to it. So she'd be starting that tomorrow morning...and hopefully her new 'boss' wouldn't notice that she'd been out wicked late again.

Buffy glanced at her watch, which read ten past ten. If she ran, she might be back before 10:30, which was better than eleven o'clock, at least. And who knows, maybe this time Charlie had actually managed to keep his mother from noticing her late absence!

_**Eppes Craftsman House, Pasadena, California – July 3, 1996 – Late Evening**_

0 0 0 3 1 3 1 1 8 1 2 9 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

"She just went out for a walk, Mom," Charlie protested, wilting back a bit at his mother's sharp look. "She... likes walking."

"I know that, Charlie," Margaret Eppes replied, shaking her head with a sigh. "But that doesn't mean she should just wander off in the middle of the night, no phone, no coat even." She protested, nodding to the jacket Annie usually wore when she went out, which was still hanging on the coat rack near the door.

"It's pretty warm out tonight," the mathematician pointed out, telling himself that his voice did not sound meek.

"That's not what your mother's angry about, Charlie," Alan Eppes called from his seat in the living room, where he was folding up the paper he'd been reading. "We're both thankful that she was wandering around late at night the night she found you, but it's _not_ a healthy habit for a teenage girl."

"Walking?" Charlie forced a bit of skepticism he didn't feel into his voice, wincing back again when both his parents glared at him.

"Walking around the streets of Los Angeles in the middle of the night," Alan shook his head, his expression rueful. "A few years ago I thought that impractical habits like your ventures into math were a penalty of your genius, but it's starting to look like a flaw of your generation."

Charlie frowned, having trouble relating his in-depth explorations of complex mathematical expressions to Annie's demon-hunting patrols, but shook the thought off with the frown. "I thought you older people called those things the follies of youth, or something like that."

Alan Eppes laughed, shaking his head as he rose to follow his wife into the kitchen as the oven timer went off, with Charlie trailing a bit reluctantly behind him. "I would hope you might grow out of it, but I don't see that happening for you. And your brother says he's going for a career in the FBI and is currently tracking some of the country's most dangerous criminals. I guess I can hope that Annie, at least, will grow into common sense at some point."

Charlie accepted a glass of milk and a small plate of oven-fresh chocolate chip cookies from his mother with a nod of thanks. "I really don't think we need to worry about Annie."

Alan took a bite of a cookie and raised an eyebrow as he chewed it and swallowed. "...We _are_ talking about the same girl, aren't we? 'Bout five-two, petite with blonde hair, green eyes and pretty enough to model professionally?"

"Well, yeah," Charlie mumbled, swallowing the cookie he'd been chewing on before he continued. "But she's also a black-belt you know."

"That doesn't mean she should go looking for trouble, Charlie," his mother protested over his Dad's, "She is?"

"Yeah, in Aikido, Jijitsu, Karate and something called Krav Maga, I think," Charlie told his Dad before quickly continuing in response to his Mom's glare. "And I know that, Mom. And _she_ knows that, too."

"Who knows what?"

All three Eppes jumped as the girl they were talking about was suddenly stealing a cookie from the formerly growing pile of chocolate chip cookies on a plate on the counter.

"Ooh! Cookies!" Annie cried happily, quickly taking and savoring a bite of hers as Mrs. Eppes, used to Annie's ability to seemingly appear out of nowhere and move without making sound after weeks in her company, sighed and also poured her a small glass of milk. "Thanks, Maggie... so, who knows what?"

"You're welcome, Annie. And Charlie thinks that you know better than to go looking for trouble, despite your skill in martial arts."

Charlie shrugged a bit sheepishly when Annie directed a raised eyebrow towards him.

"Well, yeah," Annie shrugged. "I probably know it's not a good idea, just as well as anyone else."

"Then why are you wandering around by yourself in the middle of the night, young lady?"

Annie shrugged again, this time to Alan Eppes. "I like walking. And it's really quiet at night."

"You don't like the quiet, Annie?"

Annie blinked at the older blonde woman. "No, I do, really." She frowned, setting her now empty glass in the sink, having already finished off the milk it'd contained. "I meant the streets are quiet at night. Really, they are." She protested at the looks both adults sent her. "It's nice."

"It's dangerous, Annie," Alan protested.

"I'm careful," Annie shrugged again. "Really, Maggie, Alan, Charlie," she nodded to each in turn. "You don't need to worry about me."

Charlie smiled slightly as his Mom caught the younger blonde and pulled her into a gentle hug. "We care about you, Annie," the older woman told her firmly. "Of course we're going to worry if you do things like this."

Annie seemed frozen in her embrace for several long moments, before she returned the hug, gently patting the older woman on the back. "Thank you, Maggie... but—"

She was cut off by the sound of the phone ringing and breathed a small sigh of relief as the older woman draw away slightly to watch her husband answer it.

"Hello? Donnie! Hi, how are you. Good, good. One second, here's your mother," Alan Eppes quickly gave up the phone in response to his wife's grabbing motion, "I'll just get the one in the living room, then."

Seeing his parents finally distracted, Charlie caught Annie's eye and nodded towards the back door with an eyebrow raised. Receiving a nod in response he turned and made his way out, hearing Annie open the fridge to grab two water bottles out of it and a few cookies off the counter as she followed him, and quickly grabbed a cookie for himself before leading the way out, holding the door open for her and quietly sliding it closed, hoping that his older brother's call would keep his parents distracted for a good while yet.

_**Eppes Back Yard, Pasadena, California – July 3, 1996 – Late Evening**_

0 0 0 2 2 1 6 6 2 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 7 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Buffy raised an eyebrow as she took a seat by the koi pond, smirking slightly as she took a bite out of one of her stolen cookies. "So I guess your distraction didn't work?"

Charlie shrugged as he also sat down next to the pool, his expression sheepish. "Well, she seemed interested... for the first half hour, at least."

"With what?"

"Gregoff's XXXXXXXXXXX Expression, Dr. Edgar Gregoff recently published it in the Glasgow Mathematical Journal* that explains—"

"Ah, ah, ah," Buffy waived her hand cutting him off and shook her head at the hurt expression that immediately settle over his face, drawing him closer to the side of the Koi pond and down onto the ground beside it, wrapping an arm around his shoulders as he submissively followed. "Charlie, as lovable as you yourself are I haven't even graduated high school, remember? And I'm pretty sure that even if I eventually do, most mathematics that you find interesting are going to be _way_ over my head."

Charlie frowned, then sighed and shrugged, looking down into the koi pond at the brightly colored fish that were swimming lazily around the pool. "I know... I just don't really know anything else." He mumbled, taking a bite of his cookie and accepting the water bottle she gave him with a nod, "Thanks."

Buffy raised an eyebrow, deftly reaching over to grasp his chin and turn his face towards hers again. "Sure you do. You know baseball don't you? You like basketball. You like the—" she nodded at the Koi pond, "fish. You like music, don't you?"

Charlie shrugged again. "Yeah, I guess. One of my counselors had me start listening to music when I was at Princeton... it helps me focus. Keeps the numbers from overwhelming me."

"Overwh—" Buffy blinked and shook her head. "What'd you mean?"

Charlie turned his head away and stared into the koi pond again, watching the fish unconsciously make lazy patterns in the water, or so he'd claimed the last she'd asked him why he found watching the fish so fascinating. When Buffy looked at them she really just saw pretty fish... but then she hasn't even started geometry yet and had slept through and skipped a lot of her algebra one class thanks to her destiny, so...

Finally, Charlie looked up again, meeting her eyes and thereby bringing her focus back to the immediate present. "I kind of... I tend to see numbers, see math, everywhere." He told her, his voice quiet. He nodded towards the house. "I look at my parents house, and my mind can't help but see height, mass...patterns."

When he was quiet for several long moments again, Buffy spoke up quietly, drawing his attention back to her. "I thought you liked that... Isn't that how you kinda, um, make sense of the world?"

"Yeah... and I do. Most of the time," Charlie murmured with a nod, then sighed again, finishing off his cookie with a few big bites before continuing. "Like now, I'm in a familiar environment and mostly relaxed... so the numbers don't bother me. But...when I went away to college, the only things I was familiar with there were my Mom and math. Made it really hard to stay focused, and I had to start seeing a psychiatrist for it. To help me focus. To keep things in perspective. I mean, Mom helped a lot, she really did... but she couldn't only do so much, you know? And I felt bad for taking her away from Dad and from Don."

"I thought Don went away to school too," Buffy murmured, finishing one of the cookies she'd stolen before taking another sip of water from her bottle.

"He did... I didn't say my guilt was completely rational. But sometimes I forgot that Don wasn't living at home still. And when I remembered I felt even worse for taking Mom from Dad, because that meant he was all alone...but he was at home, too."

"So you didn't have trouble with the classes really, just home sickness?"

"Yeah, I guess." Charlie tipped his head back slightly to take a sip of water himself before swallowing and shrugging. "I mean, I really loved a lot of the math classes, but... sometimes stuff would just build up and I'd start getting migraines and panic attacks." He shook his head. "I got those here, in high school too. Not many migraines but a lot of panic attacks... mostly from social pressures then too, I think. But it was worse at Princeton the first few years."

"That's understandable," Buffy murmured, her voice still soothingly quiet. "You were a long way from home and under a lot of pressure... and you were barely a teenager then, too. That's when most people are thinking about maybe going out on their first real date, not what they need to do to get their first doctorate."

"Yeah... Yeah."

"...But music helps?"

"Most of the time, yeah." Charlie nodded, seeming to shake off memories and force himself back to the present as he replied. "I don't know how but... it just helps me focus a lot of the time. I can work without it, but then I... tend to get distracted, or loose track of the time... and get attacked by vampires."

Buffy laughed, smiling slightly as she leaned against her friend. "I'm pretty sure that's the most extreme consequence you'll ever see cause of time lossage. And it shouldn't happen again. It was weird for them to stop here anyway, vamps usually don't spend much time in residential neighborhoods, since people are protected by their homes for the most part."

"So they usually don't go around tricking their way into houses to eat the residents?"

"No, not usually. I mean, you still don't want to actually invite anyone in after dark, but your house is far enough away from the city that it would be odd for you to see vamps here much. They tend to prefer clubs and dark alleys. And grave yards."

Charlie frowned, "There's a pretty big difference between clubs and grave yards, isn't there?"

"Yeah. But I don't encourage their habits. I just make note of them for future slayage prospects." Buffy smiled again. "And speaking of clubs, you didn't seem to mind dancing too much when we were looking for vamps."

"Umm, well... uh. You didn't really give me much choice, you know."

"I know. But you had fun, didn't you?" When she finally got a nod from him, Buffy grinned. "And you can deny it all you want, but you had to have liked the standing ovation you got at _Caritas_ for your singing." She teased, watching in amusement as her friend's cheeks reddened.

"Well, I, uh. I guess I did..." Charlie shrugged, shaking his head again. "But I'm really not that good at singing. No thanks," he finished, waving away the cookie she was – reluctantly – offering.

"You've got a good voice," Buffy told him. "Just need to work on controlling your breathing. You could take lessons. Or just practice. Either way, Lorne's crowd loved you."

Charlie rolled his eyes. "Well they couldn't really have booed me out, Annie. They knew I was there with you."

"Sure they did. But that didn't mean they really had to stand up and clap and cheer for you at the end." Buffy smiled as a small smile worked its way across the genius's face.

"No, I, uh, guess they'd didn't." After a second of reflection he shook his head and turned his full attention to her again. "So, how'd it go tonight?"

Buffy sighed deeply and shook her head, taking another warm and gooey bite out of a cookie, savoring it and swallowing it, all the while looking down into the koi pond, before she replied. "Not well. Didn't run into any slayable vamps or demons, they're all hiding in _Caritas_ or just plain hiding."

"What about the homeless people?"

She shook her head. "A whole lot of confused, old 'nobodies' that didn't even seem to notice my existence, or any of my questions. Seriously, I followed one guy around for nearly half-an-hour and the only times he looked at me was when I stepped right in front of him, and then he just blinked and stumbled around me... It's kinda creepy."

"Did you make note of the areas you found them in?"

"As ordered," Buffy nodded, reaching into one of her pockets to pull out a notebook the size of her hand with a small pen attached to it. "I still haven't seen anything, though. I mean, I've found about two-dozen of the old victims, but they're not hanging out anywhere or avoiding anywhere in particular."

Charlie took the notebook from her and began flipping through the pages. After a few moments of reading he nodded. "Not that you can see. But math is all about patterns, Annie. Identifying them, analyzing them, and making predictions about them. All of your victims are wandering around in the same general area, but are they avoiding the same general areas?"

"I...don't know."

"Neither do I," Charlie told her as he rose to his feet. "Yet."

Buffy watched him walk quickly back into the house, flipping through her mini-notebook again, his head already lost in the math and shook her head before washing down the last of her cookies with another sip from her water bottle. '_If he can actually do this_,' she realized with a sigh, '_I'm gonna feel really, really bad the next time I have to skip a math class for Slaying..._'

"Annie?"

Buffy winced as Mrs. Eppes call sounded from the house, clearly a bit worried. "I'm out here, Maggie."

A moment later the back door opened again and the older woman slipped out, a small package in her hands. She waived Buffy down and made her way over to unknowingly sit exactly where her youngest son had been sitting only moments before, and held the package out to the younger woman. "Here."

Buffy blinked at her and, after setting her now half-empty water bottle down, accepting the package with a confused frown. "What's this?"

"A gift," Mrs. Eppes replied with a warm smile. "Open it."

Buffy looked down at the package, which was wrapped in pretty green and gold paper. "But it's not my birthday, or—"

"I know. Think of it as a thank you present." Mrs. Eppes held up a hand to forestall Buffy's protests and shook her head. "It's a very practical one, Annie. Open it, please."

After a moment of silence Buffy sighed and obediently began to carefully unwrap the package, gently prying the tape up, not wanting to tear the pretty paper despite the fact that it would probably be thrown away soon after she finished taking it off her present. She blinked a few times as she finished, staring down at the small image on the side of the box. "A—"

"—Cell phone, yes." Mrs. Eppes finished for her, offering a small smile. "It's prepaid. You buy calling cards to pay for it, the directions are in the box. But Charlie figured it out for you yesterday, so you won't have to worry about resetting the minutes for at least a year." The older woman shrugged, still smiling slightly as Buffy remained silent. "Since you seem to like walking around in the middle of the night a lot, it would just make me, make all of us, feel better if we could reach you and you could reach us if you need help."

Buffy licked her lips slightly, blinking back tears for a few moments before murmuring, "Thank you..."

"You don't need to thank us, dear," Mrs. Eppes told her as she rose to feet, bunching the used wrapping-paper up in one hand before pausing for a moment to place a warm, gentle hand on the younger girl's shoulder. "Just keep it with you when you go out, especially at night, all right? That'll be thanks enough."

"Yes, ma'am." Buffy nodded in response, watching the older woman walk towards the house for a moment before calling, "Maggie?" she continued when the older woman looked back. "I really am sorry for worrying you."

The older woman shook her head. "I know what it's like to need to get away from things, dear." Raising an eyebrow she gestured towards the nearby garage. "Personally, I usually just hide out in the garage for a bit, sometimes go for a drive. But to each their own, and I guess you don't have a license, so driving is not really an option."

"No," Buffy nodded in agreement, looking down at the box in her hand then up at the other woman again. "Tha—"

"I'm going to head up to bed now, Annie. You should soon too, all right?" Mrs. Eppes smiled, shaking her head slightly as she turned walking back towards the house again, calling, "Good night," over her shoulder before stepping back inside.

"Good night," Buffy called back, shaking her head as she looked down at her present again.

_**Streets, Los Angeles, California – July 4, 1996 – Late Evening**_

0 0 0 3 1 3 1 1 8 1 2 9 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Charlie shook his head as he followed Annie through LA's darkening streets once again. He'd marked out the area they were now wandering through as part of a potential 'hot zone' that all of the victims seemed to be moving away from, so here they were, searching for something Annie could slay. A part of his still couldn't believe he was actually following her on one of her... 'patrol's' again. An even larger part couldn't believe he'd actually wanted to go with her enough to convince her to take him along. "I, um, I thought you said this was too early for your patrols," he brought up after a few moments of silence in the darkened streets.

Annie turned her head towards him slightly, shrugging even as she gracefully evaded a break in the sidewalk followed by a piece of litter that a normal person would have tripped over, not seeming to even notice her subconscious sidestep or the utter grace and silence of her movements, made all the more obvious by his efforts at quiet, careful steps. "Well, yeah, it is. But we're not looking for vamps, Charlie. We're looking for victims to this aging thing. And the human victims are homeless, so they're out at all hours... And according to you there she be a lot of them around her, right?"

"Well, yes." Charlie nodded a little bit unsurely as he looked around the mostly deserted streets. "From the data you gave me, this should be the area they all have in common."

"Yeah, so—"

"Buffy?" a hesitant, female voice interrupted them, making Annie freeze in her tracks and causing Charlie to stop and look at her a bit unsurely before turning with her to look at the teenage girl that was approaching them, looking directly at Annie.

Charlie looked between the two, frowning at the slightly frightened look on the Slayer's face and the nervous expression on the other girl's. "Can we help you?" he asked, after the girl had stopped a few feet away from them and tucked her hands partway into too-small pockets of her jeans.

The blonde – who looked like she was older than Annie but still a teenager and probably not as old as him yet – blinked and looked at him for a moment, before shaking her head. "I'm sorry, I, uh, I wanted to talk to Buffy."

"I'm going by Anne now," Annie broke in, her good humor gone and her eyes a bit despondent as Charlie frowned at her but remained silent, quickly realizing that he was apparently going to learn more about his friends past now, and hoped she was ready for that.

0 0 0 2 2 1 6 6 2 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 7 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Buffy frowned slightly at the blonde girl that knew her real name. When she'd first heard it, she hadn't been able to place her voice, but half of her had expected to see either someone from Hemrey High, the other half was expecting someone from Sunnydale. But the timid, insecure blonde wasn't someone she knew... her face looked a little familiar, but only just.

"...I, uh. I guess you don't recognize me?" When Buffy continued to study her the older girl shrugged a little, looking down uncomfortably as she continued. "I was... In Sunnydale. I was in this cult that... kind of, worshipped vampires. Lame, I know."

"Chan...Chantarelle?" Buffy murmured after a moment's consideration, a foggy memory of the girl introducing herself coming back to her.

"Yeah! Yeah, that was my name then... I go by Lily now. It's...from a song. Rickie, my boyfriend, Rickie, he picked it." The blonde shrugged again, tucking her hands into her pockets uncomfortably. "I'm always changing it anyway. Chantarelle was part of my exotic phase."

"It's, uh, nice," Buffy murmured after another pause.

"You named yourself after a mushroom?" Charlie's abrupt, clearly surprised question drew their attention back to the genius and Buffy couldn't help but squirm a little bit uncomfortably even as the other girl frowned at him.

"I did? It is?" 'Lily' asked, a clearly startled expression on her face, followed by embarrassment. "That's really embarrassing."

"Um, well," Buffy spoke up before Charlie could speak again, "it's gotta be an exotic mushroom, if that's any comfort."

'Lily' sighed. "Well, before that I was following this looser preacher and calling myself 'Sister Sunshine.'" She shrugged again. "I guess that's why the vampire stuff seemed so appealing then. 'Xact opposite, you know?"

Buffy nodded, still a bit confused at why the girl would approach her but decided to keep going with it. "What'd they call you at home?" She blinked as the other girl looked down and stayed silent, but shook her head after a few moments of total silence. "I like Lily."

"It's cool for now," Lily replied with another shrug. "Hey, do you have any money?" She held her hands up before Buffy could respond, looking somewhat mortified. "I didn't mean that like... Well, I just mean... I know this guys, he's gonna have this kinda rave thing in his basement. We could go. I mean, I could show you guys if–" she broke off with a gasp as an old man suddenly bumped into her from the side, nearly bowling her over as he stumbled down the sidewalk between them. "Hey! That's not very polite."

At Lily's outraged remark the old man stopped and turned to look at the three of them, and Buffy saw the same expression that was becoming increasingly familiar for her to see on old homeless people as of late as he stared at them.

"Are you okay?" Charlie asked, stepping forward slightly and frowning in concern at the much older man, his mind undoubtedly making the connection to the victims Buffy was trying to avenge but not able to suppress the concern he felt for the old man.

The man made a strange jerking motion as he stumbled back away from them and declared, "I'm... no one," before turning and stumbling across the street.

"Okay..." Lily's comment barely registered in Buffy's mind as she noticed a truck speeding down the road towards the old man that was crossing said road. "That was a bit weird..."

Not even giving it any conscious thought, Buffy dropped her bag and ran after the old man, reaching him just seconds before the truck, giving her enough time to shove him out of the way but not enough to avoid having the truck slammed into her, sending her flying down the street ahead of it even as it came to an abrupt, squealing stop in response to the driver's panicked braking.

0 0 0 3 1 3 1 1 8 1 2 9 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Charlie could only gape in horror as he watched his small friend flew through the air and smashed down onto the pavement several feet ahead of the truck that had just hit her.

"Buffy!" he heard Lily cry as she started to run into the street, and Charlie followed a few steps behind her even as statistics ran through his head.

'_Eighty-five percent chance of death if a pedestrian is hit by a car traveling forty miles an hour or faster. Forty-five percent chance at thirty miles per hour. Five percent chance as twenty – How fast was he going?!_' Charlie wandered as he and Lily reached the Slayer's side just as she was starting to push herself up. *

"Are you okay?" he hears Lily ask, her voice as panicked as his mind presently is even as he kneels down beside his friend to place a gentle, hesitant hand on her arm, as much to comfort her as to reassure himself that she really was all right.

"Geez, I didn't see you," Charlie glanced up to see a middle-aged man with a large mustache standing stumbling closer to them, clearly having come from the truck, as the driver's side door was sitting wide open and the expression on his face screamed a combination of shock and remorse.

Charlie looked back at Anne as he felt her start to push herself up more forcefully. '_Or is it Buffy?_' he wondered again, his confused mind still remembering what the other girl kept calling his friend, and remembering hearing her tell the other girl that she 'went by Anne now,' meaning she hadn't always.

"May-Maybe you shouldn't move," Lily protested.

Charlie nodded in agreement, gently grasping her shoulder and rising with her even as he also protested, "Yeah, Annie, you sh—"

"Maybe you should lie down," The driver broke in, his voice a bit frantic-sounding even before he raised it to call. "Somebody call an ambulance!" He ordered, looking around at the crowd of bystanders that was building up around them, undoubtedly summoned by the sound of screeching brakes moments before.

"_No!_" Annie – for that was who she really was to Charlie, at least – immediately protested, "I-I'm okay. I just—" she shakes her head, pulling out of Charlie's gentle grasp much more firmly and steadily than anyone who'd just been hit by a car should be, though her voice was shaking a bit. "I-I need to go." And then she somehow forced her way through the concerned crowd, running down the street far faster than any normal person could move.

"Annie?!" Charlie cried as he ran after her, ignoring the crowd of idiots that parted for him. He saw her turn a corner several blocks down and tried to quicken her pace, somewhat desperately hoping she'd stay on that street long enough for him to see her when he reached the corner.

As it turned out, he needn't have worried. Because when he rounded the corner he saw she'd stopped for some reason and was looking at a flyer a man had given her just around the corner.

"—Then why are you here?" the man was asking, his head cocked to the side a bit in disbelief. "This is not a good place for a kid to be. You get _old_ fast her. The thing that drains the life out of them is despair. I mean, kids come here, and they've got nothing to go home to. This ends up being the last stop for a lot of them. It shouldn't have to be that way... but it is."

"Not for Annie," Charlie broke in, finally coming up to them with a frown on his face as he wrapped an arm around his friend's shoulders and the man stepped back, returning his frown for a moment before it seemed to disappear behind a fake smile.

"Guess not..." the man acquiesced, before nodding to both of them. "Still, don't be shy about stopping by. We're interested in more than just feeding the body and putting roofs over heads. You might find something you're missing, still."

And then he was walking away from them, and Charlie was taking the flyer he'd given Buffy from her with a small frown on his face. "What's this?" he asked, even as he quickly read over the printed lines:

* * *

**Come Home to**

**FAMILY HOME**

**In Our House, The Light Is Always On.**

* * *

"Some kind of homeless shelter, I think," Annie muttered, shaking her head even as she tried to pull away from Charlie and looked up at him as his one-armed grip suddenly tightened.

"Are you okay, Annie?" Charlie asked her, unable to keep a strong note of concern out of his voice.

"Y-Yeah." The Slayer reassured him after a long moment of silence. "I'm fine, Charlie... Superhero, remember? And a healthy one, too, thanks to your family. Some of the bruises I've got now will be gone after a good night's sleep."

"Then why don't we head back so you can get that sleep?"

"But—"

Charlie glared at her and after a moment she sighed in defeat.

"Fine. I guess we can go home early... Rather not have your Mom call us back, anyway," she confessed, waving to the cell phone that he was hanging from a clip on his belt, set on vibrate.

"You know you really should find a place for that, Annie." Charlie told her, even as they slowly started to make their way down the street towards Pasadena, all the while keeping an eye out for an available cab.

"I will, I will." The blonde agreed, shaking her head in amusement as their pace slowly increased, though Charlie's arm remained firmly around her shoulders.

"By the way," Charlie asked after a few minutes of walking. "Should I be calling you Annie?"

0 0 0 2 2 1 6 6 2 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 7 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Buffy flinched a little, glancing up at his neutral expression before shrugging. "What'd you mean?"

"Lily called you 'Buffy," Charlie reminded her, "and you told her that you were 'going by 'Anne' now... And from your conversation with her, I don't think you change names a lot like she apparently does. So is your name actually Buffy?"

Buffy bit her lip and looked down, before sighing and nodding her head. "Yeah, it is... But Anne is, too. It's my middle name."

"And O'Connor?" Charlie asked, drawing another wince.

"That... That was Angel's name, when he was...human. Liam O'Connor. There... He had someone put a spell on it that would make whoever used that last name go unnoticed a lot..." she shrugged again. "I don't really know how it works. But I needed to give a name at the hospital, and I didn't want to give my real one, so I... said my name was Anne O'Connor. And I guess the spell took care of the rest."

"...What's your real name?"

"It's... Buffy. Buffy Anne Summers." She told him, looking down at the sidewalk as they kept walking, only to be forced to stop when her friend did.

"Well, I'm pleased to meet you, Buffy. I'm Charles Edward Eppes."

"I kn—"

"Now do you want me to call you Buffy or Annie?"

For the second time in two nights Buffy sniffed a little as she found herself blinking back tears of gratitude and after a few moments of silence she looked up and met her friend's warm chocolate-brown eyes. "I'm...going by Annie, here." When Charlie nodded in response she continued quickly before he could reply. "I was going to tell you. All of you. Really, I was. I just... I just wasn't ready yet. I j—" She stopped in shock as Charlie drew her into a hug.

"It's okay, Annie," the mathematician told her, his voice warm and firm and he slowly started rubbing circles in her back when she began to tremble.

"It... It is?"

"Of course it is. We're friends, aren't we?"

"Y-Yeah."

Charlie leaned back a little and gently made her look up at him with a hand under her chin. "I get that you needed time, because of what happened with Angel... and I get that you probably haven't told me everything that happened, okay? I can wait." He shook his head in bemusement. "I mean, you saved my life at least twice already, Annie. The least I can do is be a little patient with you."

"I didn't—"

"Uh-uh," Charlie stopped her by transferring the finger that had been holding her chin up to her lips. "What did my Dad say about modesty when it comes to having saved my life?" When she just frowned at him, he shook his head. "Just nod and say you're welcome, remember? You _did_ save my life, Annie. And you're my friend..."

"Yeah... I guess. But don't you want to know about...?"

"Oh, I'm as curious as I can possibly be, Annie," the genius replied with a warm smile. "But I'm willing to wait. Just tell me when you're ready, okay?"

After a moment Buffy nodded. "Okay..." she looked down with a smile, but frowned as a surprised thought crossed her mind. "You know... You don't seem too surprised...about my name?"

Charlie laughed. "I knew that wasn't your real name, Annie. My parents suspect it too, but they can't figure out how you fooled the hospital. I just figured it was some kind of magic-thing, and—Ooh!" Charlie released her suddenly to step closer to the road and wave his arm around. "_Taxi!_"

Buffy giggled at the image the older teenager made and shook her head as he held the taxi door open for her. "Thanks, Charlie." To the driver she gave the Eppes' address before leaning over to rest her head on her friend's shoulder and start to doze off as he wrapped his arm around her again, knowing that he'd wake her when they got there and she'd be safe with him. "Oh, and Happy Fourth of July."

"You too, Annie. You too."

End _**Chapter 5: Demon Hunting**_.

* * *

**AN: Well, how was this chapter? Not as dramatic as some of the 'Your name is **_**Buffy?!**_**'-parts I've seen, I know. But it seemed to fit really well with the episode... I wanted to find more statistics for Charlie to think about, but that was the best I could do for the moment, at least. Maybe I'll add more later on... Feel free to suggest some, if you already know some that fit.**

**Some notes from within the chapter itself: **

**(1) The **_**Glasgow Mathematics Journal**_** is a journal that mathematicians publish research papers on pure mathematics and applied mathematics, published in Cambridge, England. And that's all I know about it... just enough to know that it is something Charlie would probably prescribe to.**

**(2) The statistics Charlie thought about for pedestrians getting hit by cars were taken from John Bisnar's ****California Pedestrian Accident Statistics****, posted on .**

**And that's all I can really think of at the moment... Hope everyone liked it. And hopefully I'll be able to get through my most recent bout of research papers quickly so I can work on the next chapter soon.**

**I don't think the research will slow me down too much. I'm more than halfway through writing most of the papers and honestly I **_**barely**_** need to study for the tests I have that are coming up... which aren't finals. No, my professor's just want all the final **_**projects**_** and **_**term papers**_** more than a month before the term ends... And I still have a final in all but one of my classes plus the projects and papers! It's really not fair. Don't they know they're supposed to pick? Still, other than the upcoming due dates I have enjoyed all my classes this semester so I suppose should suck it up and count my blessings...**

**Anyway, this shouldn't slow me down too much on this story in the series at least, because this story has been coming to me with barely any work, which is nice. So hopefully you won't have to wait more than a few days longer than you have the last few times.**

**Let me know what you think! (hint, hint – that means REVIEW! PLEASE!)**

**Bye f****or now! ^_^**

**Jess S**

* * *

**NEXT: **_**Chapter 6: Demon Hunting – Part II**_**.**


	7. Chapter 6: Demon Hunting II

**Disclaimers: ****Buffy the Vampire Slayer**** belongs to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy & Fox. ****Numb3rs**** belongs to CBS. (NOT ME!!!)  
AN: Thanks again to **_**Katgurl**_**, for beta-reading this chapter.**

**Warnings: ...If anyone thinks I need to put a warning about something here, please tell me. E****njoy! ^_^**

**First Meeting**

_**Part I in Mathematics & Magic**_

By Jess S

_**Chapter 6: Demon Hunting**_

_**Part II**_

_**Eppes Back Yard, Pasadena, California – July 5, 1996 – Late Morning**_

0 0 0 3 1 3 1 1 8 1 2 9 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Charlie shook his head slightly as a muffled 'it's open' gave him permission to push the door to the guest room – Annie's room now, really – open. "Annie, it's almost noon."

"It's Sunday," came the girl's muffled protest from beneath a pillow. Followed a moment later by an equally muffled inquiry. "Do I smell coffee?"

"Yes," Charlie confirmed, holding the already prepared cup he'd brought her – four-fifths coffee, one-fifth fat-free milk and one sugar – a little closer to the bed before drawing it back as the blonde slowly emerged from beneath her pillow. "But you'll have to get up for it, if you want any."

"All the way up?" the Slayer asked with a stifled yawn, her wide-green eyes bright and somehow mournful as she clutched her covers closer to herself.

"All the way up and out of bed, yes." The older teenager replied, rolling his eyes as he took a step further back towards the door, lest she be able to steal the coffee and return to bed too easily. When his friend didn't move or reply, just continued staring at the cup of coffee he turned and set it down on the bureau by the door before turning back towards her and crossing his arms, an eyebrow rising as he asked, "I thought that, as the Slayer, you didn't need much sleep normally? You certainly seem to have plenty of energy most of the time."

"I don't need it," the blonde yawned, finally deigning to swing her legs over the side of the bed and wrap one of the blankets around her shoulders as she rose to her feet, gliding around him to snag the cup of coffee with far more grace and ease than a normal person could ever hope to attain, let alone possess right after they'd first waken and before their first sip of coffee. "Doesn't mean I don't _like_ to sleep when I get the chance." She told him before savoring her first sip of the caffeinated beverage.

"Sorry." Charlie shrugged, looking down with a sigh. "I was just... worried, I guess. I mean, you _were_ hit by a truck last night."

A small but warm smile made its way across Buffy's face, "That's very sweet of you, Charlie. But I'm fine." Setting the now half-empty coffee cup down again she tossed her blanket back to the bed than did a cartwheel around him to the bedside, her smile widening as she spun back around to his bemused expression. "See? Fits as a...Fit as, um..."

"A fiddle?"

"Huh?"

"That's the expression, Annie. 'Fit as a fiddle.'" Charlie told her with a small smile, shaking his head at the confused expression on her face.

"Yeah. Fit as a fiddle. One-hundred-percent...What's a fiddle, anyway?"

"It's a musical instrument...like a violin, I think." Charlie replied, shaking his head in amusement at her confused expression.

"So I'm like a violin? How's a violin... um, 'fit'?"

"It's just an expression, Annie... So you're really all right?"

0 0 0 2 2 1 6 6 2 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 7 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Buffy shook her head as she stepped around Charlie again to snag her half-empty cup of coffee, enjoying another sip before she replied. "I'm _fine_, Charlie. I was fine last night, too, remember?"

"You were hit by a truck last night. I should have taken you to the hospital."

"And tell them I was hit by a truck? Then let the watch as my mostly superficial injuries faded overnight?" Buffy shook her head again, smirking as comprehension finally seemed to dawn on the genius. "I'd be a lab rat the rest of my very short life." She winced at that slip as the older teen immediately frowned at her.

"What'd you mean 'very short life'?" he demanded.

Buffy finished off her coffee and set the cup down with a sigh and shrugged. "It wouldn't be long before the Council heard about it, Charlie. And I don't know if they'd actually kill me to keep the secret, but they would, at the very least, take me away and send me back to my destiny, and... Slayers really don't live very long. Kendra didn't even last a full year. Hell, _I_ barely lasted more than a year."

"_**What?**_" Charlie's wide-eyes were fixed on her face, still demanding answers as he caught her arm and pulled her back to the bed, pulling her down next to him as he sat down. "What'd you mean _you_ did last more than a year? You're right here!"

"Yeah..." Buffy tugged a little at his hold on her arm, trying to turn away a bit, but gave up when he stubbornly refused to let go, she sighed. "I... When I moved to Sunnydale, last year, with my Mom I started Slaying again after some of my new friends were threatened... Near the end of the school year Giles and Angel found a prophecy about me that said I would face The Master – a really old vamp that was trying to open the Hellmouth – on Prom night and that I would die and The Master would be freed and unleash Hell on Earth."

"But you stopped it, right? You're right here in front of me. Alive... And," Charlie shrugged a little as he waived around them with his free hand. "no Hell... right?"

"Yeah." Buffy sighed again. "I kinda freaked out when I found out about it... I heard Giles and Angel arguing about it. And I said I quit... but then I realized that if I let The Master unleash Hell on Earth that it wouldn't be worth living, anyway. So I went to face The Master, not realizing that it was my blood he needed to free himself and open the Hellmouth."

After she'd been quiet for several long moments, Charlie asked quietly. "What happened?"

"I... I froze. And he caught me... and bit me." Buffy looked down a bit, her voice pained as she continued. "And he fed on me... He didn't need that much, cause my blood is... magically powerful, I guess, and he really wanted to get out after being stuck down there for decades, so he just threw me into a pool of water after he'd taken enough." She shrugged a little. "But I was too weak to move, and he'd thrown me in face down, so I drowned." Buffy smiled slightly as she watched Charlie shake his head forcefully, probably shaking off probabilities of survival in drowning victims or something similar.

"How did... How are you here, then?"

Buffy sighed but responded, her voice just as quiet as the mathematicians. "My friends rescued me. Angel led Xander down to The Master's lair and pulled me out of the water. Xander performed CPR."

"So the prophecy didn't come true, then. You didn't die."

"No. I did." At the confused look the genius gave her she smiled again. "I didn't know it at the time, but my heart stopped. And I was 'dead' long enough for the next Slayer to be Called... That was Kendra."

"...Was? You said she didn't last a full year, but how..."

"She was killed by Drusilla, before…before I left Sunnydale."

0 0 0 3 1 3 1 1 8 1 2 9 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Charlie shook his head and sighed at the far-off look in his friend's eyes again, and reached out, taking her hand again to bring her back to the present. "I think that's enough for now, don't you?"

"Wh—Yeah. Yeah." Annie nodded, rising smoothly from the bed and gently tugging her hand away from his to head to her bureau and started to rummage through the drawers. "So any plans for the day? What are your parents doing?"

"Um, Dad's finishing that project in the Arts District. Mom... I think she said she was going to a book club meeting, but she should be back in an hour or two. Then they wanted to go out tonight... I was gonna work on... um, the demon-thing." He winced as Annie turned and raised an eyebrow at him.

"'The demon-thing'?"

"What do you call it?"

The blonde turned back to the bureau and pulled out a shirt before shutting the drawer and opening another one containing shorts. "Don't have a name for it yet... Actually, I usually don't name 'em. Usually one of the Scoobies does that."

"'The Scoobies?' Like Scooby-Doo?" Charlie asked, his mind bringing up images from the cartoon and making him smile in amusement.

"Hey, I just said I don't do naming. Xander picked it. Now shoo, I'll be down in a half-hour or so."

"Yes, ma'am," Charlie replied, obediently rising from the bed himself and heading towards the door. He stopped halfway there though as a paper by the hamper caught his eye and he moved over to pick it up and turn it over. "You kept this?"

"Huh?" Annie turned to look at him and blinked when he held the paper up. Then she shrugged. "Oh yeah. I don't need it, you can throw it out if you want."

"Why'd you keep it?"

The Slayer shook her head, smiling slightly. "Didn't want to litter. Now shoo."

"Yes, ma'am," Charlie repeated, shaking his head in bemusement as he turned toward the door, glancing down at the paper again as he neared the trash can near the door and stopped. "Annie..."

"Charlie can you _please_ leave so that I can get dressed?"

"But—" Charlie stopped and winced as the Slayer sent him a half-playful but nonetheless fierce glare and turned towards the door. "Alright, alright. I'll be working in my room when you're ready for lunch...preferably sooner rather than later?"

"Charlie, you _really_ need a girlfriend." Annie told him, right before she firmly shut the door to her bedroom in his face.

0 0 0 2 2 1 6 6 2 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 7 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Buffy sighed as she made her way through several careful stretches, pleased to find that there really was no lingering damage from her run-in with the truck the night before. She was still a little sore, but everything seemed to be in working order, and other than the biggest bruise along her waist – where the truck actually hit her – all of the bruises had faded.

With another sigh she glided over to her dresser, wrinkling her nose in disappointment at her now empty coffee cup before starting to rummage through the drawers for a suitable outfit for the day.

A part of her – the athletic and competitive part that had always enjoyed being the Slayer – was pleased to be investigating demonic activity again. The part of her that was till mourning Angel was far less pleased. And other part, the part that was growing to adore Charlie and his family was totally terrified of loosing that.

Whether it be letting Charlie come to harm in some form or another or scaring the whole family off with her freakish abilities and affiliation with the supernatural... she hadn't felt quite as 'at home' as she did in the Eppes family's Craftsman House for a good many years. Even before she became the Slayer, the fights between her parents and their pending divorce hadn't made home an overly comfortable place to be. And they'd argued over the most insignificant things for years before she'd started high school...

Still, she knew now that she couldn't ignore the supernatural. If she had ignored the Slayer the night she had met Charlie, she never would have met him. And he'd be dead and buried now.

How many more innocents were dead because of her negligence?

Buffy shook her head forcefully, trying to shake such thoughts away. "What the hell," she muttered to herself with a glance at the clock on her bedside table before tossing her clothes onto the bed. "I have time for a few katas. Charlie won't notice..."

Then she calmly stepped into one of the resting positions Angel had taught her, before taking a deep breath and starting to work her way through the calming exercise.

0 0 0 3 1 3 1 1 8 1 2 9 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Charlie frowned as he looked down at the flyer again before shaking his head and putting it aside, deliberately right on top of the map he'd drawn up for his friend. Then he turned to his laptop, which was still open to his email and opened a word document to list what he'd learned so far:

**Annie = Anne O'Connor = Buffy Anne Summers = "Slayer" of vampires & demons**

**O'Connor = Angel's human surname**

**Sunnydale, CA = a Hellmouth**

**Kendra = Buffy's successor (deceased)**

**Merrick = Buffy's first Watcher (deceased)**

**Giles = Buffy's current Watcher**

**Angel/Angelus = a vampire & Annie's ex.**

**Xander = a friend of Buffy's**

**The Watcher's Council – some kind of association that is supposed to help the Slayer... as back-up?**

**Drusilla = vampire/demon who killed the Slayer Kendra?**

Charlie's frown deepened as his quick mind noticed several problems with some of the assumptions on his list.

First, if Kendra was Called – he'd noticed the capital emphasis Annie kept putting on that word – when Buffy's heart stopped, shouldn't another Slayer have been Called when Kendra was killed?

After a moment's thought he realized that one probably was, but Annie would not have met her because Kendra – from what he'd gathered – was killed right before Annie left Sunnydale, by someone or something called 'Drusilla.'

Another problem was this 'Watcher's Council.' It sounded like the Slayer's Watcher's purpose was to provide back-up for the Slayer. From what Buffy said though, that back-up was mostly in the form of research. Now, as a scientist and a life-long student he greatly believed in research and the idea that knowledge is power... but shouldn't someone help the Slayer more that that? It sounded like these 'Watchers' were an actual, probably international, organization that was headed by a 'Council.' And if that were the case, why then was so much pressure put on Annie? Sure, she was supposedly 'Chosen' by some higher power for this purpose, but that didn't mean she needed to do it alone...

It also sounded like Annie did have some other friends who helped her. These 'Scoobies' that were named so by her friend, 'Xander,' who had saved her life. As well as Angel, before he became Angelus again...

Plus Annie was supposedly put in an asylum for some time when she told her parents about vampires and demons... Why did this 'Watchers' Council' allow that?

His frown still deepening, Charlie saved and then minimized the list he'd made before opening a window to Google and typing in "Sunnydale, California" and "news."

As a list of results popped up he skimmed down it till one caught his eye:

**SUNNYDALE HIGH SCHOOL**

With a nod to himself he clicked on the link to the school's website, skimmed over the typical welcoming message and clicked on the link for the archives of the school's newspaper. It only took him a few moments to come to a horrifying realization, and a few more clicks to check that each newspaper was at least half obituaries or missing-persons reports of people affiliated with the school: some teachers, but many, many more students. Some of the smaller issues were just a cover page over pages of obituaries and missing-persons!

Remembering that Annie had only moved to Sunnydale a few years back, he closed the older issue he'd been skimming through and open up the archives for 1994 and was surprised to find on the first page of the first issue in January '94 was a brief biography of 'The New Girl, Buffy Summers.' Quickly copying and saving that article into Word he continued looking through the archives, not paying any mind to the minutes passing as he noticed the obituaries in the school paper markedly shrinking after 'Buffy's' arrival.

Shortly after she'd arrived a local club called "The Bronze" was attacked by gang members on PCP – which seemed to be a popular excuse for supernatural attacks. Before that someone named Jesse McNally was apparently killed with a pitchfork, and his two closest friends were listed as _Xander_ Harris and Willow Rosenberg.

Not long after that a cheerleader – he subconsciously shuddered at the term, memories of the harmless-looking vampires that had attacked him possibly leaving at least that lasting mark in his psyche – had apparently spontaneously combusted during cheerleader tryouts... He didn't think a vampire would just wander out in sunlight, so there must have been something else behind that.

A week after that the high school biology teacher, Dr. Keith Gregory was found beheaded and stuffed into a cafeteria locker. And his replacement, a Miss Natalie French died a few days later when her house burnt to the ground.

A few days later the school's principle, Robert Flutie, was supposedly eaten by wild dogs in his office only a few hours after his pet pig, the school mascot 'Herbert' had suffered the same fate. He was replaced by an 'Armin Snyder.'

The next death the paper reported on was two weeks later, when a ballerina named Emily Ryan was murdered in the high school's theater, where she'd apparently been preparing for the school talent show when someone knocked her out and cut her heart out. Another student in the talent show, a skilled ventriloquist named Morgan Shay was also murdered in the theater a few days later, except his brain was removed.

Charlie couldn't help but cringe back – even more than he had with the earlier stories – as he read through this particular story, the idea of someone removing another person's organs disturbing him.

The article ended with the Talent Show being a success after another participant, a Magician named Marc Reed, disappeared.

The next article he noticed was one about the town water being contaminated and supposedly leading to vivid hallucinations and general chaos.

The next week focused on a series of attacks by an 'unknown assailant.' A baseball player was beaten with a bat in the boy's locker room. A cheerleader was pushed down a staircase. Another girl, Cordelia Chase, was also kidnapped. And a girl named Marcie Ross disappeared... except unlike the other victims, the high school reporter couldn't find any information on Ross beyond the facts that she was born and raised in Sunnydale and had been a sophomore when she disappeared.

Another article was about a minor earthquake leading to school starting late, and then being canceled entirely when the members of the 'AV Club' were found in their club room brutally murdered.

Later in the week the school library was destroyed by another, much more massive earthquake, but the Spring Fling, held at the Bronze, was apparently a success. The reporter had noted that several people's clothing had suffered from the quake but those like Buffy Summer's had still been able to pull it off and have a blast.

"Knock, knock."

Charlie jumped slightly and turned his head towards the door, where a fully dressed Annie was smiling at him.

"Glad to see you could keep yourself busy, but you said you wanted to talk sooner rather than later, right?"

Glancing at the clock the mathematician shook his head again as he realized he'd been reading for nearly an hour and quickly saved the link to the archive he'd been reading before closing the window and setting his laptop aside. "Yeah, come look at this Annie..." Then, rising from his chair he grabbed the map he'd prepared for Annie, the flyer still sitting on top, and waived her over to his bed, where he unrolled the map all the way and set the flyer down on top of it.

The Slayer came over, her expression serious as she studied the map, before she raised an eyebrow at him. "So I should be looking in the red area, right?"

"Yes. That's the area that your victims seem to have the high probable commonality. But..." Shaking his head he grabbed the flyer he'd just set to the side and held it out to her. "Look at this."

"Wh—Charlie, I told you to toss this, it's trash."

Charlie shook his head firmly, gently grabbing her arm to stop her from turning further towards his nearby trashcan. "No, read it... Please."

"_Come home to Family Home._" Annie rolled her eyes, but obediently read the words aloud, "'_In our house, the light is always on._' ...so what?"

"Look at the address." Charlie told her, watching as her eyes obediently went to the fine print at the bottom of the page. He saw the moment she made the connection as her eyes widened.

"Is this...?" she turned her eyes towards the map, frowning as Charlie nodded.

"Right in the middle of the hot zone, yeah."

0 0 0 2 2 1 6 6 2 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 7 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Buffy shook her head as she turned her gaze back to the paper again to stare at the seemingly innocent message. "So Ken could have something to do with the dimensional gate... he draws victims in, maybe?" she sighed, "I don't think he's a demon... I should have sensed it, if he was."

"You'd just been hit by a truck when you ran into him, Annie. I don't doubt you were more than a little disorientated," Charlie reminded her gently.

"Yeah, I guess," Buffy nodded half-heartedly, glancing down at the paper again. A part of her – the Slayer – was more than a little excited to have her target mapped out for her, but another part felt like it was the beginning of an end she didn't want to come.

"It may be a coincidence... but it doesn't seem likely. It's an area that all of the victims you found are clearly moving away from or going out of their way to avoid. And – Annie, are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah." Buffy nodded again, tossing the shelter's flyer down on the map and turning to leave. "I'm fine... You want lunch?"

"My Mom's not back yet," the older teen pointed out mildly, his eyes still set rather closely on her face. "She wanted to take us out, remember?"

"Yeah... Well, with the Slayer metabolism there's no reason I can't have a snack while we wait... You sure you're not hungry?"

"No, thanks, Annie. I can wait."

"'K... Well, I'll just head down. Let me know if you find anything else?" Buffy looked back at him when he didn't respond right away and had to fight to keep her expression care-free when she saw he was still observing her closely, concern in his gaze.

"Of course," the mathematician replied, his voice quiet. "I'll be down shortly, I just have a few more things to analyze. Call me if my Mom gets back sooner?"

"Sure..." Buffy nodded, before turning and walking out the door. She stopped at the threshold and glanced back to see Charlie sitting down at his desk again, one of his half-gone notebooks open and a pencil in hand. "Hey, Charlie?"

He looked up, eyebrows raised. "Yeah?"

Buffy glanced down before looking up to lock gazes with him again and say, "Thanks," before walking away and quickly down the stairs before he could respond. But Slayer hearing meant she heard it anyway, despite being at the bottom of the stairs while his reply was a soft murmur.

"Your welcome, Annie."

0 0 0 3 1 3 1 1 8 1 2 9 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Charlie sighed, shaking his head as he gazed at the doorway Annie had wandered away from moments before, his half-surprised reply floating after her. Some of what he was finding in Sunnydale's news was making some of her reactions make sense, but was still leaving him more than a little confused.

If there was an entire organization dedicated to helping the Slayer, as Annie suggested, why was this "Giles" the only adult in Sunnydale to support her? Sure, it sounded like she had friends – this "Scooby gang" – to help her, but that didn't seem like enough.

And where was the government in all of this? He understood the idea that most ordinary people might subconsciously suppress any interactions with the supernatural. He could even remember doing it himself, or trying to, after his attack. His over-curious mind had eventually won and forced him to pursue answers, but there was a part of him that really, really hadn't wanted to. But there should be at least some part of the government doing something about this. It looked like before Buffy arrived in Sunnydale half-a-dozen students at Sunnydale High had disappeared or died on a weekly basis. The number had dropped after her arrival, but that was just the high school. That probably meant that more than a dozen people had been murdered or had disappeared on a weekly basis for years – how had the government _not_ noticed?!

Shaking his head again, Charlie set his notebook aside and grabbed his laptop again, opening it up and clicking on the link back to the news archives again.

After the last Spring Fling, the next school articles were in mid-September, and it seemed odd – and more than a little wrong – to be relived that there were only two obituaries in the first edition of the school paper, but the September before there had been nine, in both cases students that had not returned for that school year, having been died during the summer. One of the two girls hadn't even apparently suffered a supernatural death. She was killed in a car crash with a drunk driver. Still very, very sad, of course, but still less horrifying than the idea that these high school students were being picked off one-by-one as snacks by monsters.

Charlie winced as the girl's obituary took a more disturbing twist half-way though, in that her body had apparently been dug up after her funeral in, according to the young reporter, yet another example of similar grave robberies the police were investigating.

The next article he noticed was about the school being attacked by gang members on PCP during Parent Teacher Night, illustrating yet again how little sense it made for the adults in the town to be unaware of what was really going on. Annie had said that 'gang members on PCP' was a common explanation for vampires, after all.

In the next issue one of the missing-persons articles was about a girl named Ampata Gutierrez, who had been an exchange student from Latin America that was staying with Buffy Summers before she disappeared.

In the first issue of November, a reporter reported on the Halloween tricksters of '96 having apparently gotten more than a little out of hand.

Two weeks later, Buffy's name was mentioned again. This time she was the alibi for the school librarian, Dr. Rupert Giles. Apparently a friend of his, a Philip Henry from England was murdered and found outside of Sunnydale High's library, pointing two connections towards the school librarian.

Charlie nodded to himself as he minimized the window and opened up his list again, adding the new information about Buffy's Watcher to it before saving it.

**Dr. Rupert Giles = Buffy's current Watcher = from England**

The next article was seemingly full of information about the upcoming school's Career Week more than anything else. After which the high school was evacuated due to a gas leak under the school library. The following week the Mall was closed for several days, though no explanation was given as to why.

In February there was an article about Xander Harris, obviously written by an admirer, that made him blink in confusion.

Two weeks later the school's computer teacher – a Jenny Calendar – was murdered, her neck snapped before she was left in her boyfriend, Dr. Rupert Giles' home for him to find. And Charlie was beginning to see more and more of where the guilt Annie seemed to be carrying around was coming from. The murder of her Watcher's lover could not have been easy for Giles or Annie.

A short time later a flu epidemic went through the town, and many high school students were hospitalized, including Buffy Summers... whom Charlie was beginning to notice the reporter constantly made a point of mentioning.

A few weeks later all of the students on the Sunnydale High School's swim team disappeared, and several of their skins – not attached to their bodies – were found in various places around the town, making authorities presume the jocks to be dead.

The last edition of most recent school year talked about an attack on the high school library by gang members on PCP. An unknown African-American teenage girl was murdered, her throat cut. Willow Rosenberg was injured in the attack and Rupert Giles was apparently kidnapped but later released. Buffy Summers was accused of the attack by Principle Snyder and wanted by the police for a time, but later cleared by the living victims and was no longer wanted for the crimes. Friends and family were desperate for news of the still missing young woman...

After closing the Internet windows, Charlie saved the list he'd made thus far and sighed. His friend had clearly been through a lot, from what he could tell her world had all but fallen apart just a few months past. And so she'd run. She'd runaway like so many of the young people whose fates they were now investigating.

Charlie glanced at his map again and sighed, closing his laptop to set it aside and grabbing his notebook and pencil again. He was confident in his findings: that the homeless shelter was located right in the middle of his hot zone made him all the more so. Still, in never hurt to double check. He might have missed something the first time through, and he wouldn't be able to forgive himself if that something was a thing Annie – as the Slayer Buffy or just as someone who would soon be in the area – needed to know.

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

_**Eppes Back Yard, Pasadena, California – July 5, 1996 – Early Afternoon**_

0 0 0 2 2 1 6 6 2 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 7 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Buffy smiled as she heard the familiar sound of Maggie's Eppes van pull into the driveway out sound, followed by a door opening closing and familiar footsteps moving around outside. Quickly finishing the dishes that had been in the sink, she closed the dish washer and hurried outside to meet her, arriving just in time to snag two of the heavier grocery bags the older woman was struggling with. "Here, Maggie. Let me take those."

"Wh—Oh, hello, Annie. No, here, let me take one, they're rather heavy. We'll make two trips."

"No it's fine," Buffy turned away slightly to keep the heavy bags from the older woman. "I got these."

"Are you sure?" Upon receiving a firm, confident nod the older blonde gave her a bright smile in return, before turning back to grab the other two – lighter – bags, then closing the van's rear door and hitting the automatic lock on her keychain before turning to lead the way inside. "Well thank you... I see Charlie managed to wake you."

"Yup." Buffy confirmed, rolling her eyes when Mrs. Eppes glanced back at her with a raised eyebrow, and following her up the steps. "He bribed me."

"Bribed you? With what?"

"Coffee."

Maggie laughed, shaking her head as she set her bags down on the counter in the kitchen, Buffy quickly following her example. "Well he _is_ a genius... and a college student."

"And he was at least smart enough to wait until eleven to try it," Buffy added, inciting another laugh even as she finished unloading the contents of her two bags onto the counter and quickly folded the paper bags up to put them in the drawer with the other recycled bags, accepting the bags the older woman handed her before closing the door and turning back to put the actual groceries away. "He said you wanted to go out to lunch?"

"Yes," Maggie glanced at the clock, a rueful expression crossing her face as it was almost one o'clock now. "If you want to... Did you eat already?"

"No." Buffy shook her head as she put the new gallon of milk in the fridge. "Just finished a snack a little while ago... but I'm still starving, and Charlie decided to just wait," she quickly reassured her, making the older woman smile again.

"Then go get Charlie, I'll finish up with this."

"Yes, ma'am," Buffy smiled, giving up the chore without a fight and quickly hurrying out of the kitchen and up the stairs to Charlie's bedroom again. Glancing in the doorway, she shook her head as she found him still bent over his notebook, working away. "Knock, knock." She smiled when he jumped before turning to her. "You ready? Your Mom's home."

"Tell her I'll be right down," the mathematician told her, before returning to his notes.

Buffy rolled her eyes again and glided into the room and over to his desk, leaning over his shoulder to look at the notes and wrinkling her nose at the work within, which she recognized as number and mathematical symbols, but they might as well have been in Greek or Chinese, cause she certainly couldn't read them. "What're you working on?"

The mathematician sighed, giving her a slightly aggravated glance before his eyes went back to the book as he replied. "Just double checking some of my work."

"On the hot zone thing?" Buffy guessed, rolling her eyes when he nodded in reply. "Why? We already have a target."

Charlie shook his head, finishing off the line of thought he was presently working on and then snapping the book closed with a sigh as he turned to her. "And what if it turns out to be wrong?"

Buffy frowned. "I don't think it is... do you?"

"No," Charlie sighed. "But it never hurts to be sure," he pointed out, before rising to his feet. "You ready to go?"

"I was ready an hour ago, remember?"

"That was an hour ago," the older teen teased. "You sure you don't have to do something to your hair or—"

"My hair?! What's wrong with my hair?" Buffy demanded, dashing over to his nearby mirror to scrutinize her appearance with frown.

"Nothing! Nothing!" Charlie hastily reassured her, grabbing her arm to gently drag her out the door and towards the stairs where his Mother was waiting, a small smile on her face. "Annie, I was teasing."

"But—"

"Mom, tell Annie her hair looks fine." Charlie ordered, grunting as she tried to twist out of his grip – though undoubtedly aware that if she really wanted to break away she'd have done so.

"You look lovely, Annie," the older woman reassured her, her warm and reassuring tone calming the teen enough to make her stop struggling and instead glare at the other teen.

"What? Owe!" Charlie winced and his hand flew to the back of his head where she'd just wacked him.

"You do _not_ tease a girl about her hair!" Buffy told him. "You—You... You just don't!" She then turned with a huff, flipping her hair over her shoulder – and into his nearby face – before breezing past the chuckling Mrs. Eppes and out the door.

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

_**Eppes Back Yard, Pasadena, California – July 19, 1996 – Late Evening**_

0 0 0 2 2 1 6 6 2 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 7 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Charlie sighed, shaking his head in exasperation at the stubborn look on the Slayer's face. "Why not?"

"It's not safe, Charlie."

"It's not much safer for you, Annie. And you're still going."

"I'm the Slayer."

"That doesn't mean you should wander into a dangerous situation like this alone. What... What if you're outnumbered? Or hurt? What then?"

"Then I die. And the next Slayer is Called."

Charlie stared at the resolute expression on his friend's face for several long moments before shaking his head, a heavy frown stretching across his face. "Annie—"

"I'm sorry, Charlie. But that's the way it is. I'm the Slayer. I have to do this... and you can't come with me. You can't protect me—"

"But I can help!"

"Help distract me, maybe. No!" The blonde shook her head violently and Charlie couldn't help but take a step back at the glare she shot towards him. "Charlie... You have no training for this kind of situation. You don't know how to fight. You know almost nothing about demons. Your abilities in stealth and tracking are next to none... You really can't help me in this. You'll just distract me. And that could get both of us killed."

Charlie looked down for several long moments before shaking his head and looking up again. "What... What if you don't come back?"

"Then I'm dead. And you have to forget about me."

"But—"

"Charlie. If I get stuck in the other dimension and am gone for even an hour of this dimensions time... I'll be dead of old age _long_ before you could possibly mount a rescue. Especially since you'd need to go through a whole lot of training and make a lot of friends before it'd be possible."

"But... I want to help," Charlie protested quietly, hating how weak his voice sounded if only because it clearly showed how weak and useless he felt at this point in time.

"You already have, Charlie," and suddenly 'The Slayer' was gone, as a smile made her 'Annie' again. "You gave me the target I'm supposed to hit... Now let me hit it, OK?"

"I guess I don't really have a choice, do I?"

"No." the Slayer admitted, as she drew back and turned away. "Not really..." she offered him a rueful smile, "We already spent the past two weeks checking your data, remember? It's pretty safe to say that Ken's the bad guy..."

"Do you have to go tonight?" Charlie protested again, shaking his head when she raised an eyebrow at him. "You _were_ just hit by a truck last night."

"I'm _fine_, Charlie. And..." Annie shook her head. "And I'm the Slayer. I _have_ to go..." She told him, turning away before looking over her shoulder again, "Good bye, Charlie. And thank you... for everything." And then she was gone, disappearing down the sidewalk at a brisk sprint that would have dropped an Olympic runner after a few seconds, but probably wouldn't even leave her winded.

Charlie stared after her for several long moments before he shook his head roughly, a heavy frown on his face again. No matter how weak he was physically, no matter how unprepared he might be... two hands were always better than one, right? So, realistically, this was just Annie being over-protective.

Well... over-protective people was something he'd grown used to a long time ago. But that didn't mean he always listened to them...

So flipping open his cell phone he quickly dialed a number he knew from multiple uses and after hitting 'send' put the phone up to his ear to wait for a response. "Yes, hello. I need a cab from 874 Hunter Street, Pasadena. I'm headed downtown. To Central City East. Yes, actually, very close to Skid Row*... Can I get a cab there or should I call another company? Fifteen minutes. Thank you."

And then Charlie hung up with a sigh, hoping that he'd be able to help and that he wasn't making the biggest mistake of his life...

0 0 0 3 1 3 1 1 8 1 2 9 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Buffy forced an earnest expression onto her face as the three men – demons of some kind, she clearly recognized now that she was concentrating – that had answered the shelter's door continued to stare at her blankly. "You know, I just – I woke up, and I looked in the mirror, and I thought, hey, what's with all the sin? I need to change. I'm... I'm dirty. I'm bad with the sex and the envy and that-that loud music that us kids listen to nowadays... And, uh... I just suck at undercover." She shook her head in exasperation before putting her hands on her hips and glaring at them. "Where's Ken?"

The only response she received was the door slamming in her face, and the sound of locks turning on the other side.

Buffy rolled her eyes and sighed. "Well, I guess we're doin' this the hard way, then." And so saying, kicked the door in. "You know you really might want to look into better locks... it usually takes at least two kicks with that many locks." She offered, before ducking as one of the three came at her with a club.

It probably took her less than a minute to disarm them and knock them all out, and by the time she was done she could _feel_ the Slayer stretching it's senses inside of her, humming with energy and excitement as it let her know the general direction of her target.

Buffy rolled her eyes as she came up to another locked door and simply spun on one foot to kick it in also.

"This is a private moment." The so-called Ken immediately protested, rising from the floor to both meet her and clearly putting himself in between her and the big pool inky-darkness that just screamed 'evil portal' and the innocent dressed in white that was about to be pulled into it. "If you could just—"

"Hate to break it to you – Actually, no. I don't mind breaking it to you at all, Ken. But your little operation here is over. And so—"

"B—Anne?"

Buffy's startled eyes quickly went to the blonde 'victim-to-be' that had turned to her with an equally started expression. "Lily, get away from that!"

"Wh-What's going on?"

"Ignore her, Lily. Rickie's waiting for you, remember? Just—"

"Rickie, her boyfriend? You kidnapped her boyfriend?!" Buffy demanded, clear outrage leaking through into her voice.

"Of course not," the masked-demon replied, though he was clearly directing the answer to Lily much more than her. "Rickie came to us quite willingly... Everyone does."

"Yeah. They're just not allowed to leave when they find out what you have planned for them, huh? No, Lily, get back!" Buffy leapt forward and tried to grab the other girl as she sensed a surge of dark energy from the portal just before the portal itself shot upward and seized the screaming girl.

"Uh, uh, uh," Ken somehow managed to halt her leap just enough to allow the portal to suck its newest victim in. "Lily made—" he grunted as her elbow made contact with his face and she heard a strange squelching noise that made her blink as his nose remained completely squished in after she jerked her elbow away. "Well, if you insist."

And with a shove from the demon she was suddenly flying the rest of the way to, and through the portal...

She could only pray that the voice she heard cry, "_No! Annie!_" just before she fell through was a trick of her imagination.

**End of **_**Chapter 6: Demon Hunting – Part II**_**.**

**AN: Well, there's Chapter 6. And as you can probably tell, this part of the Series – which really only covers the first episode of Season 3, "Anne," is quickly drawing to a close. But don't worry! For one thing, I have already marked this as a SERIES, so there WILL be more to come after this ends! And for another, we still have a few chapters left! :-D**

**For notes from within the chapter, there were going to be more but I ended up moving some of them to the next chapter, so the only informational bit I'm going to give you for now is this:**

*** "Skid Row," according to Wikipedia, is an area of downtown Los Angeles, "officially known as Central City East" that is home to "one of the largest populations of homeless persons in the United States," with estimates between seven and eight thousand people living there. It's "official boundaries" are Third Street and Seventh Street to the north and south and Alameda Street and Main Street to the east and west, respectively.**

**Considering "Ken's" targets were homeless teens who very quickly became homeless old people, it made sense to me that the shelter would be near there.**

**Let me know what you think! As always, comments and constructive criticism are always appreciated. **

**(And yes, I'm still working on papers and tests... I just found myself with some free time this evening and need a break. Hope you don't mind. ;-)**

**Bye for now! ^_^**

**Jess S**

**NEXT: **_**Chapter 7: An Actual Hell**_**.**


	8. Chapter 7: An Actual Hell

**

* * *

**

Disclaimers: **Buffy the Vampire Slayer**** belongs to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy & Fox. ****Numb3rs**** belongs to CBS. (NOT ME!!!)  
Warnings: If you haven't realized that there are some major spoilers for the episode "Anne" yet, I'm not sure what you've been doing, but I guess I should've warned about that earlier on... Sorry.**

**AN: Here's the next chapter. And we're almost at the end of the first part of M&M! This one's a bit longer than the others, but that's why you had to wait longer for it.**

* * *

**First Meeting**

_**Part I in Mathematics & Magic**_

By Jess S

_**Chapter 7: An Actual Hell**_

_**

* * *

**_

A Hell Dimension – Time Unknown

0 0 0 3 1 3 1 1 8 1 2 9 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Charlie groaned as consciousness started to return, accompanied by a pounding headache coming from the growing bump on his head: not helped by the heavy heat and humidity that hung in the air around him. He blinked several times before he realized he was lying face down to the ground and slowly, carefully pushed himself up. He winced as he took in his surroundings. Some kind of cave made of dark red and brown rock around him with black bars across every opening.

It was then he noticed the faint sound of someone sobbing nearby, and he turned from the opening to see a vaguely familiar blonde huddled in the back corner of the cell, dressed in rags that he was surprised to notice he was also wearing.

Then he saw Annie, also in rags, lying face down on the floor between him and... Lily, he thought it was, and his heart skipped a beat as his eyes widened before he scrambled over to her. Gently rolling her over and into his lap, he was relieved to see that her only injury seemed to be a nasty bump on her forehead, but her breathing seemed regular... so she should wake up soon.

"Uh, um, Lily, isn't it?" Charlie asked, trying to catch the other blonde's attention, his tone deliberately as gentle as he could make it.

She didn't answer, but her eyes did come over to him as he heard Annie groan just before her face twisted into a grimace of pain as she started to regain consciousness.

"Oh. Uhh..."

"Hey, take it easy, Annie," Charlie told her quietly, gently brushing some of her hair back from her face in what he hoped was a soothing gesture. At least, he thought he remembered his Mom doing that when he didn't feel well as a child. He thought it'd been calming, and soothing.

"Ch-Charlie?"

The genius winced as the clear note of panic in his friend's voice, and started rubbing her forehead again, hoping the gentle motion would calm her. "Hey, hey, take it easy..."

While she seemed to calm for a moment, that calm was then quickly replaced by anger. "What are you doing here?"

Charlie winced again. "I wanted to help."

"But I told you—"

"I couldn't just wait for you to come back, Annie!" Charlie protested, shaking his head forcefully. "Ten to fifteen minutes."

"What?"

"It's only a rough estimate," the mathematician told her, shaking his head again. "But... Most of the victims you found were probably here for forty to fifty years, but were only gone from our dimension for about a day. If that 'day' is just twelve hours, then the difference between our dimensions is one of their years to ten or fifteen of our minutes. If... If I'd waited an hour for you to come back, you could have been trapped in this dimension for four years. I... I couldn't..."

"Charlie—"

"Always knew I would come here… sooner or later." They were cut off by Lily's sudden mumblings.

"Lily?" Annie asked, pushing herself up more to look at the other blonde.

"I knew I belonged here," the older blonde mumbled, her eyes staring but not seeing ahead of her.

"Where?" Annie asked, looking around for the first time.

Lily blinked and after a long moment of silence, finally replied, "...Hell."

0 0 0 2 2 1 6 6 2 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 7 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Buffy shook her head slightly. "This isn't Hell," she protested. After all, Angel wasn't here.

"Isn't it?"

All three turned back to the entrance to the cage, and Buffy wasn't able to suppress another groan as the rapid movement sent a burst of pain through her skull before she forced her eyes open to where 'Ken' was watching them from the other side of the barred entryway, his demonic visage no longer masked as he smirked at her.

"What is Hell but the total absence of hope?" the demon asked her. "The substance, the tactile proof of despair... You're right, Lily." He told the other blonde, nodding to her. "This _is_ where you've been heading all your life. Just like Rickie."

"_Rickie?_" Lily blinked, a painful note of hope in her voice.

"He forgot you." the demon told her, shrugging as he continued. "Well, it took him a long time. Yeah, he remembered _your_ name _years_ after he'd forgotten his own. But in the end..."

"_Years?_" Lily shook her head. "But..."

"Oh," 'Ken' chuckled, shaking his head. "Interesting thing – Time moves more quickly here than in your dimension. A hundred long years will pass here. On Earth... it's just a little more than a day."

"So you just work us till we're too old and spit us back out," Buffy murmured, her tone dry.

"That's the plan," 'Ken' nodded, still smirking. "See, Lily, you'll die of old age before anyone wonders where you went. Not that anyone will. That's why we chose you."

"You didn't choose me."

"No," 'Ken' shook his head, but his smirk didn't fade. "But... I know you... _Anne_. Heh. So afraid. So pathetically determined to runaway from whatever it is you used to be. To disappear...Well, congratulations. You got your wish... And I don't think anyone other than your boy-toy here will think to look for you... And," he shrugged again. "Even if they do. You'll be dead by the time they start to think of it."

Buffy tensed slightly as the demon's eyes then went to a pale Charlie.

"And your boyfriend was nice enough to follow you by himself, so I don't think anyone will think to come for you for a long while, anyway. Even in Earth-terms." He turned to leave, then stopped and looked back at them over his shoulder. "So I suggest you get used to your new lot in life... 'cause you're never leaving."

* * *

0 0 0 3 1 3 1 1 8 1 2 9 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

"Charlie? Charlie!"

The math-genius blinked out of the horror-induced daze he'd drifted off in as he felt Annie shaking him. "Wh-What?"

"Snap out of it, Charlie." Annie ordered, her voice firm. "I need you here with me."

"But... you heard what he said."

"So we can't expect outside help. Doesn't mean we should just give up!"

"...I'm sorry." He shook his head, still unable to suppress the horror he felt at the idea of never seeing his family again, and leaving his parents and brother wandering what happened to him... forever.

"Don't be." Annie murmured, gently pulling him down into a hug. "Everything will be all right. Just stay with me, okay? I can't have you go off into number-land."

Charlie winced, remembering the few occasions he'd done that to her this summer, when his mother had to explain the forays his mind occasionally disappeared on. Then he shook his head. '_Not this time._' He told himself. '_Not now... Annie needs me. And Lily, too._' He realized, glancing over at the sobbing girl.

Annie's eyes followed his and she gave his shoulder one last gentle squeeze before she pulled away and made her way over to Lily. "Hey, hey. None of that... We're gonna get out of this, okay?"

Tears continued to drop from the girl's eyes and run down her face as she looked up at them, her arms still wrapped around her knees. "H-How?"

Annie smiled gently, smoothly pulling the other girl over to her and into a hug. "Just leave that to me, okay? Trust me... I need you and Charlie to take care of each other for me. And let me handle everything else..."

"B-But Rickie..."

"Do you think Rickie would want you to give up?"

"But... he takes care of me."

"I'm sorry," Annie replied, shaking her head. "But he's gone."

"We're gonna get a place. His cousin can get him a job at the car wash..."

"Lily... he's dead."

"I don't understand!" the older blonde protested, jerking out of her arms and pushing herself away from the wall to cross to the other side of the cell, where she leaned desolately against the other wall. "H-He didn't do anything wrong! Why would this happen to him?!"

"That's _not_ the point, Lily." Annie protested, shaking her head and frowning as she continued. "These things happen all the time. You can't just—"

"Annie." Charlie shook his head as the Slayer paused and turned pained eyes to him, then he pushed himself to his feet and made his way over to Lily. He hesitated for a moment then reached out and gently pulled the other girl into his arms, rubbing her back as she started to sob into his shoulder. "Shh..." he murmured, his memory flashing back to a time when he'd watched his mother comfort one of his cousin's as he struggled to follow her example. "Just let it out, Lily. Just cry."

He watched Annie rise but shook his head slightly, meeting her eyes with a sad smile before focusing his full attention on the distraught girl in his arms, trusting Annie to keep them safe as he struggled to comfort their new friend.

* * *

0 0 0 2 2 1 6 6 2 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 7 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

"You work," a new demon, one of the many guards that had guided all of them over to this landing with clubs and whips waving about and ferocious grins on their already fearsome faces. "And you live. That is all. You do not complain or laugh or do _anything_ besides work. Whatever you thought, whatever you were does not matter. You are _no one_ now. You mean _nothing_."

Buffy watched as the guard then made his way to the head of the line, sparing a glance for Charlie who was right next to her, on the same side as Lily, though she was much closer to the head of the line.

"Who are you?" the guard asked the first boy, who was trembling in terror as he gave his name, only to be knocked down to the floor immediately after before the guard moved onto Lily. "Who are you?"

"N-No one," Lily replied quickly, shaking just as much as the first boy even as she kept her eyes firmly on the floor.

The guard nodded, apparently satisfied as he moved further on down the line, getting the same response from each of the new 'slaves' until he got to Charlie. "Who are you?" Charlie glanced at Buffy and the guard immediately struck him down for it before demanding again, "_Who are you?_"

Before Charlie could answer or be stuck again, Buffy stepped forward and into the guard's personal space, smirking up at him with an eyebrow raised. "Hi! I'm Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. And you are?" She ducked as the guard took a swing at her and then grabbed his arm as she rose, easily flipping him over her shoulder and taking his club from him as he went down. Instinct then immediately took over, making her swing her new club into another guard's stomach and then up into another's face, effectively taking them both out before she rose from her crouched-fighting stance and looked around. Seeing only the stunned expressions of the other humans and no approaching threat, she nodded. "Anyone who's not having fun here, follow me."

* * *

0 0 0 3 1 3 1 1 8 1 2 9 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Charlie couldn't help the horror that rose within him as he stared at the room before them. Hundreds, if not thousands, of human beings a wide range of ages working in some kind of massive forge. Some of the slaves – for that was all they could possibly be – were wearing gloves as they hammered at glowing hot rods or sheets of metal, occasionally turning them to beat another side. But those gloves were the only kind of protection they had. Hacking coughs from tortured lungs resounded throughout the room as unmasked faces were forced to work heavy labor and breathe deep the hot, humid air that was heavily contaminated by nauseous fumes that rose from the liquid metal they were crafting into what might be some kind of weaponry.

"Charlie!"

"Wh—" Charlie's gasp was cut off as he was jerked off his feet, a hand quickly covering his mouth as he was just as quickly dragged under the cover of the staircase Annie had apparently decided to hide all of them under.

"You have to stay with me, Charlie," Annie told him firmly, forcing him to spin around and meet her eyes steadily.

"But..." Charlie shook his head, a large part of him unable to comprehend the horrific scene he could still see through the stairway.

"_You_ _have_ _to stay with me_, Charlie! Or you'll get us caught."

The barely concealed note of anguish he could hear in his friend's voice brought him back to the present and he took a deep breath before coughing as the fumes in the air aggravated his healthy lungs. After a few short coughs, he carefully took smaller breaths before meeting her eyes as steadily as he could and nodding firmly. "All right... What'd we do?"

Annie gave him a small smile before stepping back to include the others, who were all watching her with desperately hopeful expressions. "Okay. There's no way we can get back up there without meeting new people... So," She nodded to the group at large and pointed Charlie and Lily out decisively. "Charlie, and Lily, when those guards leave," she nodded out to the guards they could see on the other side of the staircase. "And they _will_ leave, I want you to take these people and get them up there, okay? _Fast_ and _quiet_."

Charlie nodded in compliance, though a part of him was desperate to know exactly where she would be while he and Lily were running away. Lily, though, had more reservations.

"You're leaving me?" the older blonde protested, her voice trembling, "But—"

"_Lily_," Annie gently grabbed the taller girl's shoulder and made her make eye contact with her, "you _can_ handle this. 'Cause I say so. All—?"

A loud noise suddenly resounded through the air around them, filling the cavernous work area and bringing all the guards that had been distractedly supervising the workers, whips in hand, to attention. The guards then started moving about more rapidly, herding all the workers to one side of the room against the wall in a line.

"Right. We've gone public." Annie nodded, giving Lily's shoulder a squeeze before doing the same to Charlie, meeting his eyes for only a moment before she nodded to everyone else. "Quick, get upstairs. _Go!_ Quietly!" And then she was running off, right towards where the demonic guards had been herding the other workers only seconds before.

"Come on!" Charlie hissed at the other teenagers, most of whom were definitely younger than him and terrified enough to take guidance from anyone who was willing to give it, he waived them around the staircase, carefully keeping one eye on their surroundings as Lily brought up the rear.

"Come on, everybody go! Run!" Lily ordered from the back.

Charlie nodded at her as she passed and, after sparing one glance in the direction Annie had gone, forced himself to run up the stairs after Lily.

* * *

0 0 0 2 2 1 6 6 2 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 7 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

"One of you fights—"

Buffy spun around and froze as she looked up to see the demon 'Ken' holding a struggling Charlie in a firm headlock, a dagger at his throat, while another demon held a trembling Lily a few steps behind them. She grunted as the half-a-dozen guards she'd beaten back moments before took the momentary hesitation as a chance to rise and beat her down to the floor, where she quickly curled up on herself to protect her vital organs from the raining blows.

"—And you _all_ die!" Ken finished, his smirk back in place as Buffy was dragged to her feat to look up at him again, clearly the worse for wear. "That... was not... permitted." He snarled, taking the knife away from Charlie throat to push him back towards the other demon-guard, who immediately released the trembling Lily in order to restrain the far more rebellious Charlie.

"Yeah," Buffy smirked up at him, more confident now that a knife was no longer pointed at Charlie's throat. "But it was _fun_."

"_Ha!_" Ken smirked again, shaking his head. "You've got guts. I think I'd like to slice you open and play with them."

Buffy raised an eyebrow, deliberately not looking away from the smirking supervisor despite hearing Charlie's struggles increase as the six guards that were holding her chuckled approvingly at 'Ken's' suggestion.

"We'll let everyone know!" Ken declared, waving his dagger ahead of him as he stepped closer to the edge and looked down his flat nose at her. "_This_ is the price of rebellio—_Aaargh!_"

Both of Buffy's eyebrows went up as she watched 'Ken' fall the three stories down to the workroom floor and then looked back up at the higher landing to see Lily standing where Ken had been moments before, a stunned expression fixed on her face at her own boldness just before several of the other humans in their group started attacking the demon that was holding Charlie hostage. Taking that as her cue, Buffy immediately started fighting again, escaping the demons that had been holding her with relative ease.

Once she was free and all the guards momentarily down again she looked up to see the other guard being pushed off the landing by several teenagers, and met Charlie's eyes for only a moment before she turned to look at the hundreds of workers that had been herded to one side of the room. "If you want to leave this place, run up the stairs and follow us! …This may be your only chance." She waived at the stairs again, before raising her voice even more, hoping that the slave-mind-set that had been beaten into them, an order from her would be obeyed even if they didn't fully understand it. "_Upstairs, now! Go!_"

Though some of the much older slaves remained frozen where they were, staring at her in a daze, she was happy to see several shake themselves out of it enough to start dashing for the staircase. And once a few had done it, several more followed, the herd mentality effectively helping them guide each other to obey her command even as she ran over towards the landing and quickly grabbed a chain to climb up, accepting the helping hand Charlie offered when she neared the top to pull her up, before all of them dashed off, quickly taking the lead as hundreds of others followed.

* * *

0 0 0 3 1 3 1 1 8 1 2 9 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Charlie grimaced as he watched Annie struggle to push the heavy gate up and hurried forward, waving to several of the others around them before crouching down and trying to help her. "Come on, guys, every little bit helps!"

"Well...this works...the abs... and the glutes!" Annie grunted, a little bit of relief in her voice as several of the younger slaves obediently came forward to help, long months and years of working metal lending them a wiry strength that most humans their age in these modern days usually didn't have. "I'm gonna feel this for a week!" she moaned, as they finally pushed the gate above their heads, several people standing to help her while Charlie stepped under and started waiving the others through.

"No more than five at a time," Charlie ordered, nodding as Lily started echoing him from the other side of the passage. "Don't worry, everyone will get through. Steady. Steady..." Looking down the passageway further he frowned as he saw several people turning back with panicked and confused expressions on their faces and looked at Lily and Buffy. "I'm going to go up ahead to help them, see you up there?"

"Yah," Annie grunted compliance, giving him a half smile before focusing all her attention on the gate once more as Lily echoed her.

Charlie nodded and ran up ahead, quickly seeing what the problem was as he looked up at what he knew had to be the portal back to their world. He looked around, frowning at the empty room before quickly pointing to several of the more muscular young men. "You guys are going to need to help everyone get up. Everyone!" he waived to catch everyone's attention on him. "You! And you!" he pointed to two of the guys that had been in their initial group, "Aaron and—?"

"B-Ben."

"Aaron and Ben. You two are going to go first. When you get through, I want you to go find something we can use to climb with. Ladders. Rope. _Anything_. Can you do that?" When he saw some hesitation in their faces he resorted back to what he remembered Annie doing to him and Lily only a short time before. "Hey! Look at me. _I'm counting on you_. All of us are. Aaron, _can_ you do this?"

"Y-Yeah," the younger teen nodded, meeting his eyes resolutely.

Ben also nodded without being asked. "Yeah, we can."

"Good," Charlie nodded before turning to the men he'd selected to help boost people up, "You guys are going to have to lift people up until Ben and Aaron return, OK?" he nodded as he got slightly confident nods in return. "Okay. Come on people, let's hurry it up!"

* * *

0 0 0 2 2 1 6 6 2 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 7 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Buffy sighed as the crowd slowly started to move forward again, glad that Charlie had apparently fixed whatever problem they were having up ahead.

"D-Do you want us to...?"

Buffy smiled as one of the guys that had been trying to help her hold the gate up for the past ten minutes looked at her questioningly. "No. I got it. You guys go up ahead. See if Charlie has anything you can help him with, okay?"

"Okay..."

A few minutes passed before she turned her head slightly to look at Lily, "That everybody?" she asked, when no one else ducked under the gate.

"Yeah, no one's coming at least."

"Okay," Buffy nodded, struggling to push the gate a little higher so that she could duck under it herself, forcing her body to half squeeze through the bottom bars. "Forget... a week… I think I'm gonna... feel this... for—"

"Annie!"

"_Raaaa!_"

At Lily's gasped warning Buffy pushed herself the rest of the way through hurriedly and looked back to see the gate slam down, piercing the back of both of Ken's knees.

"_Aaaahhh!_" the demon screamed, and Buffy smirked at him as she rose, watching several other demons with clubs come up behind him to glare at her through the gate before they came forward and tried to move it, but found they couldn't.

"_You..._"

Buffy looked down to find 'Ken' glaring up at her, yellow eyes full of agony and hatred.

"You've ruined... You've—"

"Hey, Ken," Buffy smirked down at him as she grabbed a nearby club that had been leaning against the wall and walked back over to him again. "Wanna see my impression of Gandhi?" So saying, she raised the club up over her head and then swung it down onto his as hard as she could, effectively squashing it. She then raised her eyebrows and glanced back as she heard someone hesitantly approaching from behind her.

"G-Gandhi?" Lily asked, her voice doubtful.

Buffy shrugged before dropping the club, letting it fall back against the gate that the other demons were still struggling to lift. "Well, you know... if he was really, really pissed off."

* * *

0 0 0 3 1 3 1 1 8 1 2 9 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Charlie smiled holding his hand out to help Lily the rest of the way out of the portal before doing the same for Buffy as the two came up. "Is that everyone?" he asked, and when Buffy nodded he nodded to the two men that had been holding the end of the rope ladder Ben and Aaron had found – undoubtedly the means by which the demons themselves had been entering and exiting their dimensions – and smirked as they let the ropes slide down into the portal.

"What do we do about...?" Lily nodded to the portal, but they all froze, their eyes widening as the dark, inky surface seemed to become solid before disappearing entirely, leaving behind an empty stone basin that couldn't be more than two feet deep.

Charlie glanced at Annie, who shrugged her shoulders before smiling and turning to make her way out of the room pulling Charlie along with her, and a smiling Lily a few steps behind them. All three froze on the other side of the doorway as they were met by a sea of hundreds of staring eyes.

Charlie looked at Annie again, who shook her head and blinked.

"Umm... you're free now, guys, so—"

The Slayer was cut off as the sound of thunderous applause and cheering suddenly filled the air around them before hands started to gently push them down the hallway, patting their backs in thanks as other hands reached out to shake their own while they were pushed and pulled through a sea of grateful smiles until they reached the entrance to the shelter, where people were hanging in every window and doorway around them, crowding the area to get a good look as they continued to clap and cheer.

Charlie couldn't help but smile as he glanced down at Annie's face, which expressed clear, wide-eyed shock at the sight around them. He gently pulled his hand out of hers and wrapped his arm around her shoulders before holding his other arm out to Lily, who slipped under it with a thankful smile.

Annie glanced up at him then, her eyes still wide even as silence descended around them and clear panic entered her gaze as everyone continued to stare at the three of them.

Charlie, still smiling, shook his head and leaned down to whisper in her ear, "I think they're waiting for you to say something..."

"Uh, I, um, I—"Annie shook her head, staring around at the countless eyes that were watching her before looking up at Charlie again.

Charlie shook his head and sighed before looking around again, taking a deep breath of the clean – much cleaner than in the Hell dimension, at least – air and, after telling himself to just treat them like one of the larger classes of students he'd served as a Teaching Assistant for at Princeton, spoke up. "Thank you all, but we're just as happy to be out of there as you are..." he sighed as he took in many of the older faces that were staring at him. "For those of you that were... in that place for a long time, readjusting is going to be hard. But you _can_ do it. Think of this as your second chance..."

"Yeah." Annie finally spoke up, seeming to find her nerve in his words. "And don't hesitate to ask for help, okay? ... For those of you that were gone a long time, you've aged a lot and will have trouble proving you are who you say you are. If you need help, ask us… There are organizations that can help you adjust. And you can all help each other. Remember, you're not alone anymore. Everyone around you went through the same thing and will be going through many of the same things in the future. So... don't hesitate to ask for help, okay?" She glanced around her, blinking back tears at the grateful expressions on so many faces. "My name's Buffy Summers. This is Charles Eppes, and this is Lily... And we'll help in any way we can..."

Charlie nodded. "For now, everyone try to get a good night sleep, and get used to being back in our world tomorrow, all right? We'll meet... The three of us will meet with anyone who wants to talk to us tomorrow night, we'll be back here at six PM, okay?" So saying, he pulled Annie and Lily around then more easily out of the building as both seemed relived to be away from so many watching eyes.

_**

* * *

**_

Eppes' Craftsman House, Pasadena, California – July 19, 1996 – Very Late Evening

0 0 0 2 2 1 6 6 2 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 7 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Buffy shook her head as she waited for Charlie to open the door to his house. "I really don't think they're up."

"Oh they're up... or at least Mom's up. She's _always_ up when I come home late."

Buffy rolled her eyes and gently pushed the older teen aside, smoothly opening the door and gliding inside, smirking as Charlie caught the door behind her to keep it from slamming and timidly followed her inside also. She froze when she glanced towards the living room and saw Mrs. Eppes sitting in her favorite chair, reading a newspaper.

"Late night, you two?"

"Uh, yeah," Buffy confirmed, quickly stepping back into the shadows just outside of the room to avoid the older woman seeing any of her injuries. "And actually I'm really tired—"

"Me too," Charlie quickly added, following her example as she turned towards the stairs.

"So I'm just gonna head to bed." Buffy finished, starting up the stairs.

"Where were you?" the older woman asked, her tone calm but clearly demanding an answer.

"Umm... Clubbing," Buffy replied, shrugging slightly at the look Charlie shot her for her play on words.

"Downtown?"

"Yeah..."

"Did you take a cab?"

"To get there, yeah," Charlie confirmed, glad his mother could only see his bottom half, which was much less bruised then his top, and mostly covered by the rag-like sweat pants he hoped she wouldn't notice.

"And on the way home?"

"It was really nice out," Buffy replied quickly, "So we just walked."

"...From all the way downtown?"

"Well, no. It really wasn't that far... where were we, Charlie?"

Mrs. Eppes laughed when her son remained silent. "I'm afraid Charlie isn't that good with names most of the time, dear. I'm surprised you hadn't noticed already."

Buffy shrugged even though she knew Mrs. Eppes couldn't see and then stifled a giggle at the expression Charlie was wearing. "Well, yeah, but you'd think he'd know the areas of the city that are near here..." then she forced a long yawn, before finishing with. "I'm really tired now, Mrs—_Maggie_. I'll see you in the morning!"

"Good night, Annie."

"Night!" Then seizing her chance, Buffy hurried up the stairs, forcing herself not to actually run as she knew that would undoubtedly wake Mr. Eppes up and draw more attention to herself. She waited at the top for Charlie to follow her and wasn't surprised to hear him questioned again.

"Are you alright, Charlie? What happened to your pants? I don't remember that pair, they look awful old... and torn..." Mrs. Eppes asked, her voice clearly concerned.

"I, um, fell. My pants paid the price." Charlie told her, before using Annie. "I'll see you in the morning, okay, Mom?"

"Your father and I are going to be leaving a bit early for our tee time, so we probably won't be here when you two get up," Mrs. Eppes called after them.

"Okay," Charlie replied quickly, clearly struggling to keep relief out of his voice. "Maybe in the afternoon then... Though Annie and are meeting some friends tomorrow night, too. I don't think we'll be out too late, though."

"All right. Sleep well, dear."

"Good night, Mom." Charlie called back, before moving up the stairs and meeting Buffy's smirk with a grimace. He then grabbed her and Buffy let him drag her into his room and watched as he closed the door. "How am I supposed to explain all this?" he asked, waving at himself.

Buffy looked him over and shrugged. "Let me take a quick shower, all right? Then you take one and we'll patch each other up after, okay?"

"Do you think Lily will be all right?"

Buffy smiled and nodded. "She'll be fine. Trust me, the hotel room you paid for her to sleep in tonight is _much_ nicer than she's used to. And we'll see her tomorrow at lunch anyway. I'll be back in fifteen, okay?"

"How is a shower supposed to fix this?" Charlie demanded shaking his head, his voice still noticeably forced-quiet even as he grimaced as the sudden motion of shaking his head sent a wave of pain through it and Buffy winced sympathetically.

"It won't fix everything," Buffy admitted. "But none of your injuries are bad, remember? We let Bob, who was an EMT just a few years ago in his mind and days in this world, check. And you'd be surprised how much a shower, pain killers and a good night's sleep will cure."

"But—"

"_And_ I know a little bit of healing magic, which should help. But I want my shower first, so cool it, okay? Find a change of clothes for yourself, and I'll tell you when the shower's free." Buffy hurried out of the room before he could stop her again, eagerly anticipating the hot shower she was bound for and just narrowly avoided running into her friend's mother at the top of the stairs. "Good night, Maggie," she offered again, while coming to a stop in the bathroom and closing the door before turning the light on, glad to have avoided having her injuries, which were much more obvious than Charlie's, seen again.

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

_**Eppes' Craftsman House, Pasadena, California – July 20, 1996 – Late Morning**_

0 0 0 3 1 3 1 1 8 1 2 9 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Charlie moaned as he was forced back into the waking world by someone taking up residence in his skull with the sledge hammer, evidently intent on breaking out and unconcerned of any damage they might do to his poor brain in the process.

A moment later he sighed as a vaguely familiar warmth rushed over his mind and body, somehow banishing the sledgehammer-man from his brain.

"That's it, Charlie... deep, steady breaths... You back with me, yet?" a familiar, warm female voice asked. "Don't nod. Open your eyes instead."

Charlie grimaced and just barely stopped himself from nodding in response and struggled to open his eyes. It took him another long moment to recognize the smiling blonde that was sitting on the edge of his bed, massaging his temples with faintly glowing hands. "...Annie?"

"Very good, Charlie." The blonde smiled, nodding approvingly as she drew her hands back. "For that, you get a treat. Here, sit up and drink."

Charlie docilely complied, too sore and tired to argue. His head aching still, though not as fiercely as before, but the rest of his body felt like he'd been run over by a stampede of some sort. After one gulp he regretted his compliance and tried to pull back, only to have himself forcefully held in position.

"Uh-uh. No, Charlie. Drink it all," the Slayer ordered, her voice firm. "It's good for you... and you're half way there any way."

About five nauseating gulps later the empty cup was taken away and the disgusted genius was allowed to breathe again. "What the hell is that stuff?" he demanded, gasping for breath as he looked around for anything to wash the taste out of his mouth.

"It's a potion. Kind of a healing cure all I learned a little while back." Annie offered him a water bottle, an amused smirk on her face as he took it and started gulping the contents down frantically. "My first Watcher gave it to me the first time I got beaten badly on patrol... and I kept the recipe after he died." She sighed, shaking her head as she watched the water bottle start to collapse inward in response to his gulping. "Hey, easy. I know it tastes horrible, but it really does help."

"'Tastes horrible'?" Charlie retorted, finally relenting and taking the now almost empty water bottle away from his mouth. "That does _not_ taste 'horrible,' it... it... It tastes like vodka mixed with gasoline and espresso probably would!"

"You know what vodka tastes like? I thought you didn't drink?"

"I don't!" Charlie snapped, shaking his head. "I tried it once at a frat party... and left soon afterward."

"And gasoline?"

Charlie rolled his eyes, "Well it certainly _smells_ like that _tastes_, doesn't it?"

Annie shrugged, still smirking as she rose to her feet and walked towards the door. "I guess... How're you feeling, by the way?"

"How—" Charlie stopped and blinked, shaking his head from side again before stopping, then doing it again. Then he started stretching his body and was surprised to find that everything that was paining him mere moments before seemed to be fading away. He looked up at Annie in shock and she raised the small, empty glass she'd just all but force-fed him in a somewhat mocking salute.

"Told ya it works... Just take it easy today. Your body's still hurting a bit, and only a few days rest will change that. This just speeds up the process a little."

Charlie frowned, shaking his head again as he asked her, "Why didn't you give me that after I was first attacked?"

Annie raised an eyebrow. "You mean _before_ you believes vampires and demons and magic were real?"

"Oh, yeah," Charlie shrugged, grimacing a little as the motion exposed a slight ache in his shoulders. "Good point."

"Well, that and it's not for blood loss. It's for bones and muscles. There's a different potion for blood loss, but it's really just everything the doctor told you, plus meditations and some herbs that I slipped into a lot of your food anyway."

"Oh... thank you."

"Don't mention it... You might want to take a shower again, if you're still achy. Your Mom and Dad left earlier, they won't be home for awhile and Lily already called. I told her to meet us at the gate-house in a few hours."

Charlie nodded, his eyes scanning her form with a frown. "How are you feeling?" Even knowing about her Calling, how quickly Annie healed still amazed him. He couldn't see a bruise on her!

"I'm fine, Charlie. Slayer, remember?" the blonde smirked at him before turning on her heel and heading out the door, calling over her shoulder as she went. "I'll be downstairs making lunch, call if you need anything, okay?"

Charlie sighed, shaking his now only slightly achy head a bit before obediently forcing himself out of bed to get ready for his shower and then the day ahead of them.

He'd been amazed at some of the small 'magic tricks' Annie had shown him the night before, too, paying the most attention to the bump on the back of his head and the massive bruise on his upper back from when one of the guards had hit him down to the floor with a club. Her miracle-potion was no less surprising.

But then, he supposed he'd have to get used to being surprised by magic. He knew it was real now. Not just tricks with mirrors and trap doors. Annie's hands had actually been really _glowing_ a faint golden color after she'd muttered some words in Latin and the warmth that had radiating from them had chased pain away instantly. After drinking her revolting miracle-potion he felt like he'd been sleeping for days and most of the aches and pains from his injuries were barely noticeable.

"Charlie!" he heard Annie call from downstairs and moved over to his doorway to open the door a bit and call back to her.

"What?"

"I'm making some chicken soup, do you want some?"

Charlie frowned, unable to keep skepticism out of his voice as his mind presented images of Annie last few attempts at making lunch. "You're—"

"It's your Mom's. It was in the fridge. I'm gonna heat it up. Do you want any?"

"Oh. Yeah, sure. Thanks!" Charlie called back, smiling slightly before hurriedly setting the clothes he'd picked for the day: a shirt his brother had given him for his last birthday, mailed from Detroit when he'd first started working there and some comfortable black slacks, on the bed before hurrying to take the shower Annie had suggested earlier.

* * *

_**LA, California – July 20, 1996 – Early Evening**_

0 0 0 2 2 1 6 6 2 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 7 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Buffy winced as the cab slowed down near the shelter, her eyes trailing nervously over all of the excited people she saw waiting for them to arrive there.

"Whoa, what's going on here?" the cabbie asked.

She could here the smile in Charlie's voice as he replied. "It's a community building event. Here's good." He told him, handing the cabbie a fifty as he came to a stop, before opening the door and stepping out, holding it open for Buffy to emerge while Lily got out on the other side. "Thank you," Charlie called to the cabbie as he waived him off, watching as the man looked around in amazement before finally shaking his head and driving off.

Buffy stared around at all of the faces watching them, some excited, others hopeful, and others still looking totally lost. She jumped, forcing herself to relax as Charlie slipped his arm around her shoulders.

"They're not going to bite, Annie. They just want to thank you... And some of them probably still need help."

"But how can I help them? I mean, other than the Watcher's Council I don't know of any organization that could deal with this..."

"We have several hundred people here looking for help," Charlie pointed out. "With a little leadership on our parts, they can all help themselves and each other. And who knows, having this many people aware of the supernatural may make LA a better, safer place in the long run..."

"I guess..." Buffy agreed hesitantly.

They'd had this conversation several times already, and what Charlie said made sense every time. Lily agreed with him too. But she wasn't used to dealing with victims after she'd saved them. She was used to them running off and blocking everything that had happened to them out...

"Lily and I are perfectly willing to take care of everything okay. You just... nod when they thank you okay? May small talk if you can?"

Buffy rolled her eyes at the teasing note in his voice and finally forced herself to relax only moments before they stepped into the former home to a gate to one hell-world.

_**

* * *

**_

Neighbor to Eppes' House, Pasadena, California – August 30, 1996 – Late Morning

0 0 0 3 1 3 1 1 8 1 2 9 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Charlie smiled as Lily looked around, eyes wide. "Well, what'd you think?"

"Aren't you going to give us a tour?" Annie asked, smirking when Charlie turned to her with a frown.

"I don't know it any better than you do!"

"Yeah, but you're the one who bought it... and the shelter... How did you afford all this, anyway?" the Slayer frowned, just recognizing the high expenses involved.

Charlie shook his head. "I've done some consulting over the last few years for various companies... banks and computer companies mostly. They paid well."

"Huh." Annie shook her head, looking around in almost the same amount of wonder as Lily still was. "Must have."

"I-I can't take this!" Lily protested suddenly, her wide eyes flying to Charlie and Annie.

Charlie hurried over to her, gently taking her hands in his before Annie could respond. "Sure you can. We talked about this, remember? You're going to run the homeless shelter, but you need a place to live outside of that... And Annie will need a place to stay when she visits. Which she _will_. You take care of the shelter and the house... and in return you get to stay here as long as you want, remember?"

"Wh-What about all the bills?" the runaway asked, eyeing the small cable TV in the living room and the many electrical appliances she could see.

"I'll take care of those. At least till you can handle them yourself, okay? I'll even let you pay me back if you eventually accumulate enough..." Charlie started to pull Lily further into the living room, gently pushing her into one of the seats as Annie followed them, smiling. "You don't have to worry about money for the shelter, remember? My Mom and Dad already agreed to work that out with the Mayor's office. You're just going to be in charge of the shelter itself. Which you've basically handled on your own for the last month anyway."

"Y-Yeah, b-but I'm... I'm not good at taking care of myself!" Lily protested, looking around, her eyes still wide. "How—"

"It gets easier," Annie told her, her voice calm and firm. "Takes practice."

"I'll be right next door." Charlie reassured her, "Even after Annie goes back to Sunnydale—"

"I'll call," Annie cut in, smiling slightly when Lily looked at her again. "To check up on you and everyone at the shelter, right?"

"And that way she can keep track of anything you think she should know about from the shelter... I'll keep track of everything mathematically. Everyone that's agreed to stay in touch with the shelter is going to be keeping an eye out for vampires, demons, and basically anything not-normal, and they're going to tell _you_ about."

"And you tell us," Annie finished.

"This," Charlie waived at the modest but comfortable living room around them. "Is just so you have a safe place to come home to. And so that Annie always has a place to stay in LA all the time... right?"

After a moment Lily nodded, "R-Right."

"And you're going to have help at the shelter anyway," Charlie reassured her again. "Remember, Bob, Karen and Aaron are all going to stay on there for a while."

"Bob's looking for his brother and Karen's looking for her sister," Lily nodded slightly.

"And they'll be helping at the shelter in the mean time. Karen and Aaron will help with people. Bob with help with the actual management of the building itself... With government funding and all the charities we've already heard from, this place should almost run itself, Lily."

"And who knows," Annie shrugged when both looked at her, though her eyes remained on the other blonde. "This could be just what you've been looking for the last few years. But either way, just make sure you stay in touch, okay?"

After a moment Lily nodded and a small smile graced her face, "...Okay." She looked down and then looked up at them shyly. "Thank you."

* * *

0 0 0 2 2 1 6 6 2 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 7 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Buffy smiled as she closed the door to Lily's house behind her and followed Charlie down the steps. "Do you think it'll be enough?"

Charlie shrugged as he accepted her hand in his while they made the short walk back to his house. "She's been looking for something. And you heard how sad she was when she mentioned that she and Rickie were planning on getting a house... Plus the shelter gives her a lot of friends, people who need her."

"Yeah... Thanks, by the way."

"For what?" the mathematician asked, an eyebrow raised.

Buffy smiled, shaking her head. "For managing everything. And for the name you gave the shelter..." she shook her head again. "I guess '_Angel's Home_' will sound good in the City of Angels anyway, but—"

"Kind of makes it a memorial for your Angel?" Charlie nodded when she looked at him. "I know. That was kind of the point... And you're welcome."

They walked in silence for several moments before Charlie looked at her again.

"So... do you think you're ready?"

"For what?"

"To go home."

Buffy stopped, looking down at the ground even as she watched Charlie stop with her. After a moment she looked up at him and shook her head. "I... I don't know."

Charlie smiled down at her before shaking his head. "Well, you don't have to go back right away but... You do know your school starts next week, right?"

"Yeah..." Buffy sighed, shaking her head. "I'm not overly eager to go back to that, you know."

"What, learning?"

"Oh, no. Learning is fine when it happens... It's the neo-nazi principle, his minion teachers that only notice me when I'm exhausted, and the Hellmouth under the library that really bother me."

"Ever think of raising your hand more in class when you know the answer?"

"I'd have to know the question first."

"Well, yes. To get on a teacher's good side you do have to try and be awake for most of their classes... Try coffee in the morning. You've liked it well enough here. And try to make sure you're in bed every night at least by two. And call in sick the days you really need to sleep after near apocalypses and whatnot."

"Umm... Okay?"

Charlie looked down, blushing slightly before he sighed and raised his head again. "I'm sorry, Annie. It's just... I really like you and you're a really smart girl. There has to be more to your future than just Slaying. Which means you have to pay attention in school and... you can call me if you need help with homework, too, okay?" then he grimaced. "Just, don't ask me for help with English homework. You're better off asking _any_ one else."

Buffy laughed, smiling as she stepped forward to hug the genius again. "Okay... thank you, Charlie."

A moment later she felt Charlie shift a bit and looked up to see his eyebrows raised. "Does this mean you're going back soon?"

"No," Buffy tried to pull away but suddenly found his arms around her in a comforting hug. Then she shrugged and leaned into the hug once more. "But I'll think about it..."

**

* * *

**

End of _Chapter 7: An Actual Hell_

.

**

* * *

**

AN: Well, how was that?

**I played a lot with the time line and, yes, I made a pretty big jump at the end... I probably should have had the fic start later in the summer, since the episode, "Anne" starts the day before school opens, but... *shrugs***

**Anyway, thanks to everyone who's reviewed. And once again, reviews, comments and constructive criticism are always appreciated.**

**Happy Thanksgiving! :-D**

**Bye!**

**Jess S**

**

* * *

**

NEXT: Epilogue: Farewells & The First Call


	9. Chapter 8: Farewells

**Disclaimers: ****Buffy the Vampire Slayer**** belongs to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy & Fox. And all of the lines you recognize from BtVS, also, of course, belong to Joss, et al. ****Numb3rs**** belongs to CBS. NOT ME!!!  
AN: Many thanks to ****NeverTooOld**** for beta-reading this chapter! (And for asking a question I thought no one would ever ask -- What do the numbers I use as scene-breaks stand for? Any guesses?) **

**Well, we're almost to the end now! YAY! I'll talk more about that at the end, but for now: Enjoy! ^_^**

* * *

**First Meeting**

_**Part I in Mathematics & Magic**_

By Jess S

_**Chapter 8: Farewells**_

_**

* * *

**_

One of Many Graveyards, Sunnydale, California – September 3, 1996

0 0 0 2 3 9 1 2 1 2 1 5 2 3 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Willow sighed heavily, moving carefully as she tried to stretch out the strained muscles in her back and felt several areas that she knew would bear nasty bruises by morning. Just one of the many things her attempts at slaying vampires over this past summer with her friends had quickly taught her. It also made her feel guilty. Because no matter how fast Buffy healed, she still got hurt, usually going after much bigger and badder things then the fledgling-vamps they'd been chasing this summer. But she still got hurt, she bruised and bled... After a moment she shook her head and glanced at the other two Scoobies. "Do you think Buffy knows school's starting tomorrow?" *1*

"Tomorrow. Right. Big day."

Willow nodded, giving her boyfriend a warm smile. "I'm gonna be busy a lot, but only till three o'clock, and that's when you usually get up!" She pointed out, trying to focus on the positive and frowning a bit when it seemed to make him uncomfortable.

"I can't wait to see Cordelia," Xander told them excitedly, then frowned. "I can't believe I can't wait to see Cordelia."

"I wonder what our first homework assignment's gonna be." At the look her best friend gave her, she rolled her eyes. "Hey! You're excited over _Cordelia_, okay? We've all got issues."

"I guess we should pack it in," Oz suggested after another moment's silence.

"Yeah," Xander agreed and Willow nodded, all three moving quickly around the graveyard to collect the various weapons and supplies they'd dropped while attempting to stake the newly-vamped Andy Hoelich.

Willow smiled as they made their way out of the graveyard, looking up at the clear night's sky for a second before glancing at the other two again. "Wouldn't it be great if Buffy just showed up tomorrow? Like nothing happened?"

Xander shook his head, a forlorn expression momentarily fixing itself on his face. "She can't just show up, Willow. She got kicked out."

"Well, yeah, I know." Willow shrugged, still uncomfortable with all of the details surrounding Buffy's disappearance some months before. "B-But, all the charges were dropped. So the school has to let her back in." She finished nervously, "Don't they?"

"Maybe," Oz agreed, gently wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

"Well, if Flutie was still around, I'd agree," Xander replied, grimacing when both looked at him, and shrugging. "But we've got Snyder now, remember?"

"Yeah, I just wish." Willow sighed again, shaking her head before leaning it against her boyfriend's shoulder. "I wish we knew where she was..."

_**

* * *

**_

Eppes' House, Pasadena, California – September 4, 1996

0 0 0 3 1 3 1 1 8 1 2 9 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Charlie suppressed a frown as he looked over Annie's shoulder at the paper she was working on, shaking his head slightly, a tired frown fixed on his face.

"Am I even close?"

"Um," Charlie winced, reaching hesitantly around the blonde to point at a specific point on the page. "Why did you do that?"

"What?" Annie looked at what he was pointing at. "Oh, divide by nine?"

"Yeah."

"Well I want to know what "x" is, not what "9x" is, don't I?"

"Well, yes, but what about the other side of the equation?"

"What about it?"

"You really can't ignore it."

"Why not?"

Charlie grimaced. "Because. It equals," he shook his head. "Both sides _have_ to remain equal, Annie. Otherwise it doesn't work. You can't do something to one side of the equation, and not do the exact same thing to the other. When you forget that, you end up doing weird, illogical things like, like... that," he waved his hand at her paper, grimacing again when she turned to pout at him. "Pouting won't change anything, Annie."

"_Charlie_ you said you'd actually help me understand this. I'm not a genius, remember? I didn't instinctively know how to do this when I was two." Then she raised an eyebrow at him. "And if you _do_ go into teaching full time, you're gonna have to put up with a lot of students like me."

The mathematician brought a hand up to rub his forehead. "Yeah, well, no. Teaching at college-level to math majors won't – but that's not the point. I'm _trying_ to help you, Annie. I'm just having trouble seeing why you're having so much trouble."

"I just don't know the rules, Charlie," The blonde looked away, shrugging slightly. "I don't understand why there are so many of them and—"

"So you learn them one at a time, Annie." The mathematician sighed again, more than a little unhappy at the confused expression that was still set on her pretty face.

"But I'm not good at math. I'm hopeless!"

Charlie shook his head, his frown deepening. "Don't be ridiculous. You use math all the time. Everybody does."

"Huh?"

"How do you tell time? Handle money?" the mathematician asked her, shaking his head before snapping his fingers as another example occurred to him. "And you use it in your Slaying too. To analyze patterns and predict behavior. I've seen you do it! Why did we go to the clubs we did on your patrol last night?"

"Because that's where most of the fledglings I grilled last week were taken from to be vamped."

"So?"

"So that was probably where the Sire would be, and he was."

"Right, exactly, you determined probability using logic. That's math, too." The mathematician insisted, "And you do it when you're trying to pick vampires and demons out of crowds, too. You analyze behavior and compare it to what you recognize as human and not. I know you can sense them too, but you have to use logic to actually find them in a crowd, don't you? You don't do it with numbers and equations, but you do use logic. And that's really what math is. Not just formulas and equations, but – actually thinking. It's using your mind to—"

"Solve the mysteries of the universe?"

"Yes!" Charlie grinned at her, before the dry tone she'd used registered. "Well, eventually. Right now it's just about you getting a good score on your SATs. Here, let's start at the beginning again." He grabbed her pencil from her unresisting hand and flipped the paper she'd been using over, carefully rewriting the equation she was working on at the top of the page before giving her pencil back to her. "Okay, now try again. And remember, everything you do to one side you _have_ to do to the other." He waited a moment before speaking again. "You want to get the x variable on one side of the equation, and a number on the other."

"So," Buffy frowned thoughtfully before pointing at one variable. "If I want to do that, I have to subtract by '9x' or '11x,' right?"

"Right. Either one would work, but remember, you don't want to make this harder for yourself than you have to."

"What'd you mean?"

"What do you think is easier to work with, positive or negative numbers?"

"Positive would probably be happier, right?"

Charlie blinked at her for a moment before rolling his eyes at the teasing smirk that graced her face. "Yes, I guess you can think of it that way, if you want to. So which one do you want to subtract by, then?"

"If I take the 11x out, I end up with minus 2x, but if I take 9x out, I end up with positive 2x, so 9x, right?"

"Right, so what does your equation look like now?"

"Um," Buffy frowned down at the page before carefully writing the equation out. "Four equals 11x minus ten minus 9x?"

"Good. But you don't need to list 11x minus 9x separately."

"So four equals 2x minus ten? Then I add ten to both sides to get fourteen equals 2x, which means x is 7!"

Charlie smiled at her sudden enthusiasm as the correct answer occurred to her. "Good job. Now—"

"Now you take a break." Both looked up in surprise to see a smiling Margaret Eppes walking in through the doorway to the kitchen with grocery bags in hand. "Could you two give me a hand with these? Then we can head out for lunch?"

"Sure, Maggie," Annie replied, rising exuberantly and dashing outside.

Charlie followed her as quickly as he could. He almost ran into her on her way up the steps, and saw that she'd already closed the trunk, "That everything?"

"Yup," the Slayer replied from somewhere behind several big bags.

Rolling his eyes, Charlie quickly grabbed as many of the bags as he could carry, shaking his head as he whispered, "What happened to my parents not finding out that you're a super hero?"

"Huh?" Annie looked at him, before noticing how much he was struggling with the bags she'd easily balanced on her arms. "Oh... oops?"

"All—Oh my," Mrs. Eppes hurried over to them and quickly grabbed a bag from each of them, laughing all the while. "We could have each made another trip, you know."

"Now what's the fun in that?" Annie asked as she hurriedly set her many bags down behind his Mom's back, before turning to her and all but skipping the short distance between them. "Ooh! Guess what!"

Charlie rolled his eyes as his mother immediately replied, "What?" with an equally exuberant grin on her face.

"Charlie got a phone call this morning."

"Oh? Who—" Mrs. Eppes frowned slightly for a moment, before her face cleared in realization and she beamed at him. "From _CalSci_, Charlie?"

"Yeah," he confirmed, his back to them and hiding his own excited grin as he unpacked several bags before bunching all the bags up together to throw them in the recycling bin.

"Well? What'd they say?"

Charlie looked down slightly before looking back up with a smile. "They want me to start teaching in the spring." He replied, barely finishing before his mother's arms closed tightly around him.

"That's _wonderful_, sweetheart!" Her familiar, but always welcome praise came effortlessly as she leaned in to place a kiss on his brow, before stepping back toward the phone. "Here, let me call your father and we'll meet him for lunch downtown."

"Mom, Dad's working."

"Oh, don't be ridiculous. He can take the afternoon off for a special occasion. We need to celebrate!" She frowned, stopping halfway through dialing the phone number before hanging up and grinning sheepishly. "I suppose we should finish putting the groceries away first, shouldn't we?"

"Don't worry about it, Maggie," Annie quickly reassured her, ignoring the look Charlie was sending her and focusing her smile on his mother. "I'll take care of it."

"Thank you, dear."

Charlie shook his head as he watched his mother leave and then hastily moved back to helping Annie put things away, now that all the bags were unpacked. "You know, there _was_ a reason I wanted to wait till dinner time to tell them."

"Oh, don't worry about it," Annie shook her head at him, reaching up slightly to tap his chin with a smile. "Your Dad could use the break. He's been working hard lately. I'm still not sure why you aren't sure about taking the job. You seemed so excited about it earlier in the summer."

"I was. I am." Charlie told her quickly, before sighing and shaking his head. "I'm just not sure I'm ready. I mean, I still want to get another doctorate—"

"_Why?_"

"—and besides," the youngest Eppes continued, ignoring her incredulous interruption. "Unless I'm teaching only freshman, I'm going to be younger than most of my students!"

"So? No one can spend five minutes with you without realizing your more than qualified to teach math, Charlie," she forced Charlie to stop by suddenly catching him in a hug. "I mean, you got me through a lesson, didn't you?"

Charlie raised an eyebrow at her. "Yeah. It took us nearly two hours to work through a page of simple algebra problems, Annie."

"So it took you two hours to get into my head. None of the teachers I had before this could manage that in a whole school year, and we started that stuff before I was first Called." She smiled up at him reassuringly. "You'll be fine. No, more than fine actually. You'll be great!"

_**

* * *

**_

High School Library, Sunnydale, California – September 4, 1996

0 0 0 7 9 1 2 5 1 9 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

"Thank you, Smith. Yes, thank you, thank you." Rupert Giles nodded in something akin to – but not quite – satisfaction as he hung up his telephone, then quickly grabbed his already packed bag off his chair, his coat off the hook on the door and then stepped out into the library itself to smile at the familiar faces gathered at the table there, trying to ignore the small signs of recent abuse on their bodies from a summer full of many nights of trying to keep the Slayer's schedule without Her gifts and abilities. "I have a lead." He told them, setting his bag on the table to put his coat on. "A friend in Oakland has a sketchy report of a young girl fending off a group of vampires about a week ago. And there's a plane out in about an hour."

"And what makes this lead different from the last nine leads?"

Giles frowned at Xander's question and sighed, shrugging slightly as he replied. "Well, I believe there's a meal on this flight."

The younger man shook his head. "Look, I don't mean to poop the party here, it's just, you get your hopes all up and then its just a big fat raspberry and I feel bad."

He opened his mouth to reply, but stopped when young Willow cut in instead. "But it's good that you're looking. You shouldn't give up."

"Oh, yeah. Definitely." Xander immediately echoed, sounding almost surprised by the thought that the idea of giving up might occur to anyone.

"Yes, one must try." The Watcher agreed, grabbing the handle of his bag but not picking it up yet, instead taking the moment to look all three of his young charges, his Slayer's friends, over carefully.

Young Oz was certainly better off then the other two. Being a werewolf, he not only healed little more quickly from injuries acquired as a human, he was also considerably stronger than a man his size should be and much, much more accustomed to enduring high levels of pain, due to his transformation and the damage his demon inflicted on itself when caged.

Young Xander was sitting a bit stiffly, and Giles had spotted several bruises on his form at different times over the last few weeks. How much of that was from hunting vampires and how much may have been caused by the boy's father, Giles also didn't know. And thus far, all of his questions into the matter had been skillfully evaded.

Young Willow seemed to be in the best shape of the three, undoubtedly more than a little protected by her often somewhat chivalrous friends. Other than a small cut on her brow and the awkward-way she was sitting – pointing to a strain in her lower back – she looked fine.

"Now, please, you three. For God's sake, do be careful," he implored them, careful to keep his tone mild, "I appreciate your efforts to keep the vampire population down until Buffy returns but, well, if anything should happen to you, or–God forbid–should you be killed, I should take it somewhat amiss."

"You'd be cranky?" Willow asked, with a small smile.

"Entirely." He agreed with a nod and a warm smile, then he glanced at the clock on the wall and sighed. "Well, I should be on my way."

"Have a safe flight!" Willow called after him.

Giles smiled outside the door, stopping momentarily to set his case back down as he noticed one shoe was untied. He frowned as he heard Willow continue more quietly.

"You don't think he'll find her?"

"I think he'll find her," Xander replied, his tone a bit resigned, especially when compared to Willow's far more optimistic and hopeful voice. "When she wants to be found."

Giles sighed again and shook his head, unable to deny the logic in the boy's thoughts. But as Willow pointed out, he had to try. After all, what was a Watcher without his Slayer?

_**

* * *

**_

A Club in Los Angeles, California – September 4, 1996

0 0 0 2 2 1 6 6 2 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 7 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Buffy shook her head, suppressing a grin as she watched Charlie try to make his way through the jostling bodies to their table with some degree of politeness. Despite being only a Wednesday night, the place was packed and good manners didn't really belong among the loud music and flashing lights. She raised an eyebrow as he finally made it over to her and set her soda down on the table in front of her, before reclaiming his seat. "What? I offered to get the drinks, didn't I? Someone had to hold the table!"

Charlie rolled his eyes and took a sip of his soda, probably to avoid replying right away even as Buffy turned her attention away from him for a moment to scan the crowd. "Anything?"

Buffy shook her head again, still looking around. "I'm definitely sensing something, but I don't see any vampires. And I can't narrow down what my Slay-dar is complaining about." She frowned as she turned back to him. "Are you sure all of them were here?"

"From what Lily's informants and the vampire you, um, talked to, said," Charlie nodded, shrugging as he took another sip of his drink. "Yeah. I checked my statistical analysis twice. This should be the place." After a moment, he frowned, his eyes focusing on something behind her.

Buffy turned to see one of said informants approaching their table. It was one of the girl's from Ken's dimension whom Lily had formed a close friendship with already. "Dianne, right?"

"Y-Yes, ma'am." The probably fourteen going on twenty-eight year-old replied. She hadn't been in Ken's dimension as long as some of the others, but since she had been fourteen when she first went missing and was now nearing her late twenties, she was there for more than a decade.

But like all of the others they had spoken with directly so far, Dianne insisted on referring to both of them as superiors. Lily was treated with almost the same amount of respect, but almost certainly not quite as much because she spent so much time with them. To everyone else, Buffy and Charlie were the mysterious heroes that would always be happy to help them, but would then disappear again, until the next demonic dilemma appeared.

"Y-You'll want to get in the back, there," Dianne told them, nodding towards the far back corner of the club. "There's a room back there. A-And most of the people that go in—"

"Don't come back out?" Buffy guessed, and smiled when she received a nod in return. "Thanks for the heads up, Dianne."

"I, um, I'm always happy to help, ma'am. Sir." Dianne nodded to both of them, all but bowing before she quickly hurried away, disappearing into the crowd.

"'Sir?'" Charlie frowned, shaking his head when Buffy looked at him in amusement. "Do I look like a 'sir,' to you?"

Buffy laughed, shaking her head. "I'm hoping they grow out of that, the longer they're free from Ken's hell, but we'll probably have to entertain a few fans even then."

"But she's almost a decade older than me," Charlie murmured, shaking his head in bewilderment.

"Yeah, but about a decade and a half of those years were spent as a slave in hell. You said yourself they'd need help and time to—"

"Gain confidence in themselves, yeah, I know," Charlie nodded, and then shrugged again, "No one's ever call me 'sir' before."

"Well I don't like being a 'ma'am' all that much, either," Buffy told him, before finishing off her soda in one quick gulp and rising from the table, shaking her head when he rose to follow. "No, you wait here. I'll be back."

"But—"

"_Charlie_ it's just a few vamps. I'll be fine. I'll be back by the time you finish your soda."

Charlie glanced down at his still nearly full glass of diet coke and rolled his eyes before looking back up and calling, "Annie?"

"Yeah?" she turned back to him with an eyebrow raised, paying no mind to the glares she was receiving from the people that had to move around her as she did so. Even though they glared, though, it was easy – and interesting – to see that at least subconsciously they all knew better than to bump into her. The more dangerous side of her nature, the Slayer, seeming to register in the subconscious part of their brains.

"Be careful."

The Slayer flashed him a familiar, confident grin. "I always am, _sir_! Be back in ten or so."

Charlie rolled his eyes again, but as he took another sip of her soda, his eyes continued to follow her across the dance floor and to the back corner, where it took her less than a dozen seconds to negotiate entry with the bouncers by the back door. His eyes remained fixed on that door, watching nervously as the guards started and turned to hurry in, and finally smiling when the Slayer emerged a short while later, looking none the worse for wear.

"She's pretty amazing, isn't she, Sir?"

Charlie started slightly, his head snapping around quickly to eye the older man that was standing next to their table, and nodded as he recognized him. "Yes, she is. How are you, Bob?" Looking the man over carefully. Considering he'd just escaped from hell with them a few short weeks before, he looked pretty good. And from what Lily had told him so far, the former-EMT was an invaluable assistant manager for the new shelter and it's young manager.

"Good, good." The older man replied with a nod, "I, uh, I saw Dianne come over here a few minutes ago?"

"Yeah, she told An—uh, Buffy to check out the backroom."

"Good," he nodded approvingly. "I'd hoped she'd get up the nerve to do it."

"What'd you mean?" Buffy asked, slipping back into her seat and taking one of the melting ice-cubes out of her large, empty glass to toss it back in her mouth and suck on it.

"Uh, Dianne, ma'am. She was the first to notice the backroom, so I told her to report it to you when you came here, but she's very shy, so it took her a while to work up the nerve to do so."

Buffy nodded approvingly. "Well, she did it. So have you guys set up a city wide watch now, or what?" she asked, not quite sure of what they'd been planning on doing the last time she saw the whole management group for the shelter.

"Yes, ma'am." Bob confirmed, nodding hesitantly. "We keep our eyes on all of the clubs and big restaurants. Any place people could be snatched from at night. We're also keeping track of the news and, um, we have some groups doing patrols at night, too."

Buffy blinked, frowning slightly. "Patrols?"

"Never in groups smaller than half-a-dozen, ma'am. And all of them have been taking martial arts classes for the last few weeks. And they're well armed."

"With what?"

"Crosses and stakes and water guns with holy water, mostly. We've come across some witches that are willing to work with us, too."

"Really?" Buffy leaned back, looking a bit impressed. "Well, um, good work, then, Bob. Just make sure no one takes stupid risks, okay?"

"Yes, ma'am. Thank you, ma'am..." the older man looked between them for a moment before stepping back slightly. "I've gotta get going. I—"

"I'd like to meet this witches, Bob." Charlie interrupted before the older man could leave. "Can you have them set up a meeting with Lily?"

The man blinked but then nodded. "Of course, Sir."

"Good." Buffy nodded and smiled at Charlie's quick thinking. "Thank you. Have a nice night."

"And you also, ma'am."

"Good night, Bob, and thanks."

"Good night, Sir."

Both watched the young man walk away before turning back to each other. Charlie raised an eyebrow. "So I guess should probably be taking martial arts classes of some kind, shouldn't I?"

Buffy looked at him a moment, "I guess it couldn't hurt." She replied with a shrug, "Try Tae Kwon Do or Aikido. They're more formal styles, but seeing how much you like math and logic that'd probably be better for you... though I probably don't need to remind you that the rules you learn there are only good in the classroom and human competitions."

"Vampires and demons could care less, I know," Charlie nodded, smiling slightly as he finished his drink. "So where to now?"

"Well," Buffy rose with a smile. "I was thinking about checking in with Lorne again, but first—" she grabbed his arm and pulled him out of his chair towards the dance floor. "Let's dance!"

"Annie – I don't know how to dance!"

Buffy's bright laugh drew a number of eyes, "You'll learn!"

_**

* * *

**_

Summers' House, Sunnydale, California – September 5, 1996

0 0 0 1 0 1 5 2 5 3 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Joyce Summers sighed as she looked around her empty house again. She'd already cleaned everything she possibly could up. She could try to fix the dishwasher again, but she'd just spent hours on that very endeavor only two days ago, and had had no luck then. Besides, it wasn't like she really needed the thing. Living by herself, she didn't use many dishes except on the one day of the month she hosted the meeting of her book club.

She started as a knock sounded from the front door and spun towards it, all the hopes that always rose when she heard that sound nowadays rising to the front of her mind as she moved through the house to answer it.

She knew it probably wasn't Buffy. It hadn't been Buffy a hundred times or more before now. But it always could be.

As she reached the front door, she paused and took a deep breath before reaching forward to turn the handle and pull the door in towards her. She hoped the acute sense of disappointment she felt wasn't obvious on her face when she saw Mr. Giles standing there. "Uh, hello."

The Englishman nodded, offering her a hesitant smile in his greeting. "Hello, Joyce. Um, may I?"

"Oh, uh, of course! Come on in." She waved him in, wincing as her mind immediately brought up thoughts of what this very man had told her about vampires after Buffy had run away. One of which was to never verbally invite someone in. But then again, it was still the early afternoon on a bright, sunny day.

"Thank you," Giles murmured as he stepped inside, moving into the living room and turning to face her as she closed the front door behind him and followed, wringing her hands nervously. "I've just come back from Oakland. A friend of mine called me with a lead. Stories about a young woman fighting vampires. But, uh, it didn't pan out, I'm afraid."

Joyce nodded, closing her eyes for a moment as she sighed, before opening them again to look at him. "No Buffy?"

"And no vampires," Giles replied, taking off his glasses to clean them and shaking his head. "Bunch of school kids in heavy mascara listening to extremely silly music."

Joyce winced at the image he painted before shaking her head also. "Well, thank you for going. I can hardly," She sighed and waved at the room around them, shaking her head mournfully. "I can hardly leave the house. I'm just afraid she'll call and she'll need my help."

"Buffy is the most capable child I've ever known. She may be confused and unhappy, but I honestly believe she's in no danger."

Joyce nodded again, supposing that if anyone knew what her daughter was truly capable of handling it was this man. And boy, did that thought sting. Someone who'd known Buffy for less than two whole years knowing her better than her own mother, who'd given birth to her more than seventeen years ago. She pushed the thought back and tried to explain her own feelings, hoping that getting them in the open would relieve some of the pain. "I just wish I could talk to her. The last thing we did was fight."

"Joyce, you mustn't blame yourself for her leaving." Giles told her, his voice warm and firm. "So much was happening that night. I really—" he shook his head, "You couldn't possibly understand most of it without living it."

Joyce winced again at the reminder of just how little she knew about her only child's life and that familiar anger came back to the surface. "I don't blame myself," she told him, finally letting that out as she turned her eyes to his, glaring. "I blame_ you_." She continued quickly, ignoring his hurt and bewildered expression. "You've been this huge influence on her. Guiding her. You had this whole relationship with her behind my back! I feel... I feel like _you've_ taken her away from me!"

Giles took his glasses off again, cleaning them and not looking at her as he replied in an overly mild tone, "I didn't make Buffy who she is."

Joyce stepped back as if struck, frowning at the wording. "And who exactly is she?!"

The Watcher's eyes were steady and a little bit cold as he put his glasses back on and met her glare for glare. "She is the Slayer. Perhaps our world's greatest champion. A _hero_." then he sighed, his voice softening a bit as he continued. "And she's a child. I had nothing to do with the time of her Calling. If I could bear this immense burden for her, I would gladly do it. But I _can't_. And nonetheless, I do know." he shook his head again, his eyes now seeming to gaze inward, unseeing or simply ignoring her melting glare. "I do know that she, maybe more than any of the young Potentials I met before her, was far more _worthy_ of the power of the Slayer."

"What—"

"How many other people do you think could have done what she did the night she faced the Master? Or the night she... left?"

Joyce frowned as her mind went back to who exactly this 'Master' was, and she shuddered as she remembered hearing that her daughter's death had all but been guaranteed, and she'd gone anyway. And just a few months ago, she'd needed – in her own words 'to save the world. _Again!_'

"I know I had no role in her childhood, Joyce. And I can say you certainly did an excellent job in raising her to be a wonderful young woman..."

Joyce looked up as he trailed off, and stepped back again as she saw the weary, yet cold expression on his normally mild and kind face.

"But you will never know your daughter until you know the Slayer. It is an important part of her, of her life and of her very being. A part that she needs you to accept. Because the only way she can escape it," The Watcher shook his head again, "is in death."

Joyce flinched again, a dozen possible scenarios for her heroic daughter's possible demise flashing through her mind at his words while sinking down onto her couch in silence.

"I apologize for disturbing you, Joyce. And I will take my leave. Good day."

Joyce barely noticed his locking the door behind him before closing it on his way out. She didn't know how much time passed before she shook herself out of her daze, as tears started to run down her face yet again this summer. She glanced at the phone and then at the door, willing either one to signal her daughter's return, and after a moment finally closed her eyes and succumbed completely to her tears.

She'd wonder many times already what her daughter's 'Calling' meant for her. For Buffy's life.

It obviously meant she missed many hours of sleep at night when Joyce thought she was upstairs in bed. But it never seemed to bother her all too much...

It probably was the reason she missed many classes on a regular basis.

And why her homework wasn't always done on time.

But it also, according to Mr. Giles, meant that she was responsible for the whole world. And that was a mind-boggling weight of responsibility for her to bear.

As her eyes ran out of tears Joyce struggled to pull herself together.

She'd already made many lists so far. Lists of things she could try doing to help Buffy with her nighttime-activities. But it looked like she was going to add to them, if only to keep her mind on a more positive note in her daughters all-too-conspicuous absence.

_**

* * *

**_

Eppes' House, Pasadena, California – September 6, 1996 – early morning

0 0 0 2 2 1 6 6 2 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 7 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Buffy trembled, whimpering as she struggled against the sheets of her bed. Sweat dripped down her forehead as her moans grew louder and her struggles more pronounced. Suddenly she found her arms no longer able to move, caught in a firm but surprisingly gentle grasp. Then a familiar voice broke through her panicked haze.

"_Annie! Annie, wake up. It's just a dream, Annie!_"

Latching onto that voice, she forced her eyes open and had to consciously stop herself from tossing Charlie across the room. Instead she forced herself to relax and take several deep breaths before she met his concerned gaze in the early morning light.

"You okay?" he asked, his voice quiet.

Also mindful of the early hour and his parents hawk-like ears, she replied just as quietly. "Yeah, just a... just a vision, I think."

Charlie frowned as he hesitantly sat down on the side of the bed next to her, glanced at the closed bedroom door and then looked back at her with a small sigh. "A vision?"

"Yeah," Buffy nodded and frowned as she turned her thoughts inward, trying to remember specific scenes of the otherwise blurry, emotion-filled dream. "Remember? They're another benefit – or bane – of Slayerhood."

Charlie didn't reply right away, but she didn't feel like talking right away so she let him think that through. Let his logic and science orientated mind adjust to the idea that some seers and psychics were real. Even knowing that she had told him all this before, she knew it could have easily been overshadowed by thoughts of vampires and demons and the supernatural world as a whole.

"So, you saw the future?"

"Only flashes of it, most of the time," the Slayer replied, shrugging. "Usually just enough that I can make sense of it after I know who the next big-bad is, just in time to stop them. I see faces, places, and symbols. Sometimes I feel things. Emotions from victims, or even from the bad guys... Sometimes I can hear things, but I usually can't remember them afterwards, it's just something that will trigger déjà vu when I see or hear it again later on."

"What did you see this time?"

Buffy shook her head, frowning. "This time was weird."

"Why?" he asked, his tone essentially saying that the thought of seeing the future in any way was weird, so _why_ was this one extra weird?

"'Cause I saw a lot more than I normally see. I mean, I can't remember it all, but I know I saw a whole, um, scene, I guess, play out."

"What happened?"

She didn't reply, so Charlie gently took her hand in his and waited for her to look at him again. When her eyes met his familiar, warm chocolate-brown, patiently waiting for her to continue, she sighed. "It was – what I remember – it's confusing," she told him, shaking her head again.

"Start at the beginning. Start with the first thing you remember."

Buffy nodded, thinking back before she nodded again. "Fear. I remember fear. Like when I met the Master, but grief too. Like when Lothos killed Merrick. I was trapped, I think. I think I was seeing through someone else's thoughts."

"That makes sense, from the sound of it." Charlie agreed, his tone surprisingly free of doubt. "So you were seeing through someone else's eyes? And you felt their fear and grief?"

"Yeah," Buffy nodded again, frowning in concentration. "And a vamp! I could – I mean, _she could_ sense a vamp, a really old one." She glanced at Charlie as she finished and wasn't surprised to see his eyes widen.

"So you were seeing through the eyes of another Slayer?"

"Yeah, I-I guess so." Buffy nodded slowly, before shaking his head more quickly in confusion. "But Kendra died! So..."

"Kendra died, so a new Slayer would have been Called, right?"

Now Buffy felt her own eyes widen as she nodded again. "Yeah..." she closed her eyes and concentrated on her memories again, unconsciously falling into a light meditative-trance thanks to months of practicing the art, as she sought them out. She winced as a clear image came through, breaking her concentration as one of her hands' flew to her throat. "He was choking her. But she cut across his eyes with a knife."

"So she got away?"

"She got away," Buffy nodded, eyes opening again. "And now she's running. Running to Sunnydale... to..."

"To you?" This time when she looked at Charlie he was frowning deeply. "Are you sure that what you, um, 'saw' really just happened?"

"What'd you mean?"

"I thought you said you had visions of the future."

"I do." Buffy nodded in confirmation, before shrugging. "But I have visions of the past too, things that happened to the Slayers before me. I guess it might make sense that I'd have visions of another Slayer if she needed me. I mean, w-we're not supposed to exist at the same time, but we do, so..."

"So it only makes sense that you'd be connected," Charlie nodded, but his frown didn't fade at all.

"Wh-What's wrong?" Buffy asked, a bit uncertainly. She knew he really wouldn't like hearing about any of this, but she also sensed that something else was bothering him.

The mathematician looked at her for a long moment before sighing, and looking down as he replied. "I, uh, I didn't hear you cry out."

"Wh—?"

"When you started moving about just now, from the night—from the vision? I was already here." He told her, still frowning. "I woke up a few minutes ago, and I felt... I knew that you were afraid, I could," he shook his head. "I could _feel_ it."

Now Buffy's eyes widened and she started at him for a moment before something clicked in her mind and she closed her eyes in realization.

"What?"

"Blood bonds," she told him quietly, sighing as she opened her eyes to meet his confused, but still oh-so curious gaze. "I gave you my blood. A lot of my blood, and I did it willingly. The doctors transferred it, but the Slayer approved it. I felt it when the transfusion was happening. I felt the Slayer accept and approve you."

"So?"

"Giles told me that's why the Council didn't want Slayers donating blood. _Ever_. Our blood is mystical, and the act of giving blood can be mystically binding. So, uh, we're bound now, I guess."

"Like...siblings? Or cousins?"

Buffy thought about it for a moment, then shook her head, blushing slightly. "No, uh. If anything, it's closer to a mystical marriage bond, I think. At least, that's what it sounded like when Giles talked about it." Seeing his face pale a bit, she shook her head forcefully. "Not that that's important!" she hastened to reassure him. "B-But I think that anyone that can see the bond, like a witch or seer, would think it was a marriage bond."

"Oh." Charlie couldn't help but frown, as he shook his head. "So what does that mean?"

Buffy sighed again. "I think it means that we're kind-of psychically connected now. You'll pick up things from me, like we already know you heal a little faster and have more strength and endurance then you used to. Nothing super-strong, but stronger than before, right?"

"Yeah... So I'll get visions from you too?"

Buffy shook her head again. "Did you actually see any of my vision?"

Charlie thought for a moment, then shook his head also. "No. I just—"

"Felt my reaction to it. The emotions I was feeling, right?" she asked, and continued when he nodded. "So I think that's more of an em—emp—uh—"

"Empathetic?"

"Yeah! An empathetic connection."

"Can you feel me?"

Buffy looked down. "I have always had a bit of empathetic-abilities, since I became the Slayer, I think. But yeah, I can feel a lot more from you then most people... and the Slayer knows you. Like it knows vampires and demons," she shrugged before finishing, "'cept it wants to protect you."

"Oh, um. Cool, I guess."

Buffy looked up, her eye's widening in surprise. "Really? You don't mind?"

Charlie smiled at her, warmly, "Why would I mind? I mean, it'll take a bit getting used to, but it's not like you can read my every thought or anything. It just means we'll be better at communicating then most people, if only because we don't have to open up about our feelings, we already know them, right?"

She realized he was probably paying attention to the self-doubt she was feeling, and trying to ease it. But it helped that now that she knew the bond was there, she knew that his smile and words were completely sincere. He really didn't mind. "I, uh, I guess so."

The genius's smile grew a bit wider then. "And you gotta admit, it can only be good for me, right? To have someone with at least a vague idea of what's going on in my head when I'm—"

"Off in number-land?" Buffy asked with a grin. "Yeah, I guess so... though that's still weird, by the way. Cute and interesting to watch, but," she waved her hands around a bit as she looked for a way to word what she was thinking. "The way you block everything else out when you're focusing on math is a little weird."

Charlie blinked, before favoring her with a smirk. "Well, you know, you kind of do the same thing when you're slaying, don't you?" He continued before she could object, holding up a hand to forestall her. "No, really. You focus all of your attention on, um, on your hunt and everything else fades away, doesn't it?"

Buffy tilted her head slightly to the side as she considered his observation, then nodded slowly. "Yeah. Yeah, I guess it does..." she smiled at him warmly, "I guess we have more in common then we thought, huh?"

"Yeah," Charlie nodded in agreement. "I guess we do." He was quiet for a moment, then he continued, his tone now more serious. "You're going back, aren't you?"

Buffy remained silent in thought, watching as he continued hesitantly.

"You... You don't want to leave the fate of the world on this girl's shoulders."

Buffy closed her eye and nodded. "She's so scared. No, _terrified_. That was me, once."

"It isn't right."

"No," Buffy agreed with a sigh. "No, it's not." Then she nodded firmly, before opening her eyes to meet his gaze again. "I have to go back."

Charlie nodded, then blinked when he noticed the playful pout that was suddenly settled over her face. "What?"

Buffy sighed, shaking her head as she whined softly in reply, "You'd think I'd at least be a bit better at math now that I'm psychically connected to _you!_"

_**

* * *

**_

The Bronze, Sunnydale, California – September 7, 1996

0 0 0 2 4 1 1 4 4 5 1 8 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Xander shook his head as he glared up at the stage, a part of him hoping that if he glared long enough the band would get the hint and play something a little less depressing. Another part of him thought the music fit his mood perfectly. Fit Sunnydale, perfectly right now, actually. Without the Slayer, they were all well and truly both lost and trapped. Glancing at his best friend, he frowned when he saw the far-off, slightly sad look fixed on her face. "Boy," he shook his head, raising his voice slightly to get her attention. "I'm real glad we showed up for 'Depressing Night,' aren't you?"

Willow shrugged, "I wonder what she's doing right now."

Xander's eyebrow twitched and he shook his head forcefully. "Oh, I know what she's doing. Gabbing to all of her friends about her passionate affair with Pedro the cabana boy. And laughing about me, but thinking how she still _might_ have feelings for me!" He heard Willow cough, and looked over to see one of her eyebrow's raised, making his mind finally catch up with his mouth. "Oh. It's possible you were talking about Buffy."

Willow nodded, smiling slightly in amusement. "It is possible. The Bronze just never seems the same without her." She looked up with a smile as her boyfriend arrived with her soda, accepting it with a nod of thanks.

"Yeah, and the slaying isn't getting any easier, either," Xander agreed, also accepting his soda with a nod.

"Oh, I don't know," Oz offered as he sat down next to Willow, his own drink still in hand. Xander kind of wondered how the werewolf had managed three large sodas without spilling any, but he didn't really care. "I think we're kinda getting a rhythm down."

Xander snorted and shook his head when both looked at him. "We're losing at least half the vamps."

"Yeah, but, rhythmically."

Willow sighed, "We just need to work on our timing, I think."

Xander shook his head, a flash of red in the corner of his eye making him turn and smirk. "No, I know what we need."

"A Vampire Slayer?" Oz asked with a clear smirk in his voice also.

Xander shrugged as he rose to go over to his ex-girlfriend, "Next best thing," he replied, nodding towards the teenage girl. "_Bait_." He didn't wait for Willow or Oz to reply, just made his way over to Cordelia as quickly as he could, hoping to catch her attention before any of the other guys that had noticed her entrance asked her to dance.

Maybe he hadn't been good enough for Buffy or Cordelia. But he had a job to do, here and now, and he couldn't let his feelings of self-doubt interfere with that. No matter how good she looked tonight.

"Hey Cordy!" he called, the part of him that had cowered under her ridicule for years before Buffy came to Sunnydale cringing as she turn to sneer at him. But the part of him that had pulled him through Jesse's death and drawn him down into the sewers to save Buffy's life wouldn't back down. "Whoa, whoa, I don't have time for Queen-C, right now," he told her, continuing before she could find her voice again, waving over to the corner Oz and Willow were saving their seats in. "We need to talk to you. It's about... it's about Buffy's job."

* * *

_**Eppes' House, Pasadena, California – September 8, 1996 **_

0 0 0 3 1 3 1 1 8 1 2 9 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Charlie sighed as he watched Annie move around her room with a frantic energy that he was sure would tire anyone of lesser stamina out in mere moments. From what he could tell from her emotions, which he'd become increasingly better at reading since their bond had been discovered the day before, her mental state was no less harried. If anything, it was more so. "Annie," he called gently, crossing through the open doorway and catching one of her arms and then the other to gently pull her into a hug. "Annie, calm down." He smiled slightly as he felt her release a great sigh and lean her head against his shoulder. "Everything's going to be all right."

"B-But what if my Mom really didn't want me to come home? W-what if Giles is m-mad? Or—"

"Shhh," Charlie soothed, gently rubbing a hand in circles on her upper back. "She's your Mom, of course she wants you to come home." He reassured her, hoping that he was right and that the lovely woman Annie had told him about, the woman who'd raised her, really couldn't ever be as heartless as her nearly hysterical daughter now feared. "And Giles is your Watcher, it's part of his job to take care of you and help you cope with your duties, right?"

"I-I guess."

"You _do_ want to go back, don't you?"

"No." Annie replied immediately, then shrugged. "Well, kinda, I guess. I have to go back, but..."

"Actually doing so is hard?" Charlie guessed, knowing there was more to it then that but wanting to give her something to focus on.

"Y-Yeah." Annie shook her head, "If I hadn't already told your parents that I was leaving today and where I was going, and they hadn't made such a big deal about that going away party yesterday."

Charlie chuckled, "They did go a little overboard, didn't they?"

"Yeah..." Annie smiled softly, obviously thinking back on it. "But it _was_ fun. Did I thank them?"

"Several times, actually." Charlie told her, then cut her off before she say what he knew would follow. "And you already thanked me for the laptop and my parents for the extra phone cards." He grinned as he watched her sparkling green eyes roll.

"Are you sure those things don't expire?"

"Very sure. We checked twice at the store, and called the company itself, remember?" Charlie raised an eyebrow at her. "And there's already two years on your phone itself. As long as you don't loose the other cards, or the phone, you'll have no excuse to not keep in touch for at least the next five years." *2*

Annie rolled her eyes again, then frowned. "Aren't those awful expensive?"

Charlie shrugged, then shook his head. "Not from the long-term perspective. It was much cheaper to buy the cards that cover a whole year than the ones that were half the price but only covered three months. Or the ones that were twenty dollars, but only covered sixty minutes. _Those_ were much more expensive." Then he raised an eyebrow at her. "And don't think that loosing them will give you an excuse to fall out of touch. If you do that, I'll just send you more cards until you feel guilty enough to call me." He grinned when she rolled her eyes again. "And that's to say nothing of email."

Now Annie sighed. "I'm not good with computers. And how much did that cost anyway?"

"Oh, a bit." Charlie conceded, with a shrug. "But I've done quite a bit of consulting for the company in the last few years, so I got an employee discount," then he winced. "They actually wanted to give it to me for free, but that didn't seem right. Getting two of them before they're even available for the general public seemed to be more then enough." As he saw Annie was actually thinking through what he said, he quickly continued, hoping she wouldn't put too much thought into it now that he'd already set everything up for her. "And your friend, Willow is good with computer, isn't she?" he pointed out—for the fifth time since she'd opened their most expensive gift to her the day before. "And now you have your own laptop, which is already set up for you and comes with a number of books and programs on the computer itself to help you learn." *3*

Annie rolled her eyes again, then winced as something he'd mentioned the day before occurred to her. "You didn't actually set up a thing for weekly reports on slaying, did you?"

"How am I supposed to help you with Slaying if I don't know what's going on?"

"You don't have—"

"I _want_ to." He told her firmly, shaking his head. "And as one of the few members of the human race with enough common sense to accept the fact that we're constantly in danger, I have every right to." He told her, and held her gaze until she looked away with a sigh again.

"I guess."

After a moment of silence, Charlie raised an eyebrow at her. "Or would you rather I moved to Sunnydale to help out in person? There's one major university and a few colleges there that—"

"No!" Annie protested immediately, her eyes snapping back to his. "No. You should stay here an-and take care of your Mom and Dad. And work at _CalSci_," she told him, adding when she sensed a twinge of discomfort from their still fairly new empathetic bond. "Which you will be _great_ at and should not worry about. You managed to teach me algebra, didn't you?"

Charlie sighed, rolling his eyes. "Why do you bring that up every time I bring up being uncomfortable about my new job?"

"'Cause," Annie replied with a shrug. "If you could get math to make sense in _my_ head, you really shouldn't have any problem with a bunch of geeks, now should you?"

"I guess not," Charlie agreed with a shrug, deciding to ignore the way she teasingly disparaged her scholastic abilities since he could now sense and knew that she really was teasing herself just as much as she was teasing him. "But I'll also be teaching the College Algebra class for Freshmen, who won't be all Math Majors."

"But you'll still have power over them!" Annie pointed out brightly, and smirked when Charlie shot her a slightly wary look.

"Oh?"

"You can flunk 'em if they don't pay attention to you and assign pop quizzes and extra homework until they decide that paying attention when you lecture is much better for their grade and their sanity!"

Charlie stared at her for a moment, then shook his head, "That's not—"

"_Annie? Charlie?_" They heard his mother's voice call from downstairs. "_Are you two almost ready?_"

Both started, and then with a sigh, Annie slipped out of his arms and carefully closed her suitcase, which had actually been completely packed over an hour ago. Then reached for the backpack Charlie had made her get to start school with, which now held her laptop in the back compartment, her phone in a small front pocket along with the phone-cards they'd bought for her, and notebooks and pencils in the middle compartment.

"Be right down, Maggie!" Annie called back as she slipped her backpack on and picked up her suitcase, before turning to Charlie, rolling her eyes when he took the suitcase out of her hand. "Well," she sighed, "I guess it's time."

_**

* * *

**_

Revello Drive, Sunnydale, California – September 8, 1996

0 0 0 2 2 1 6 6 2 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 7 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Buffy sighed as she stepped back from Margaret Eppes, smiling softly as the older woman placed a gentle kiss on her brow before releasing her. Then she turned to Charlie, who also smiled as he stepped forward to hug her. She returned his embrace as tightly as she dared, careful not to let her Slayer-strength hurt him as she hid her face in the crook of his shoulder for several long moments before finally letting go and stepping back.

"You ready?" Charlie asked, his voice barely louder than a whisper but somehow full of warmth, encouragement and a little bit of sadness, which may have been more of what she was sensing for their still barely explored bond.

Buffy bit her lip as she looked at the house her mother had bought almost two years before, sitting innocently in the familiar yard halfway down the street. After several seconds of silence, she finally nodded. "...As I'll ever be, I guess." She leaned down to pick up her suitcase, shaking her head when Charlie moved forward to help. "I got it." She told him, shrugging as easily rose with the heavy suitcase in her grasp and the lighter backpack on her pack. "I-I have to do this by myself."

Charlie frowned slightly for a moment, but then his face cleared and he nodded, while his mother smiled at her from a few feet away. "I understand. Stay in touch, remember?"

"I will," Buffy nodded, looking down for a moment and taking a deep breath before she looked up to continue. First, she looked at Mrs. Eppes. "Thank you, Maggie." She murmured, waiting till she received a smile and a nod in return before looking at Charlie again. "_Thank you._"

Charlie nodded. "Take care of yourself, Annie. And remember, I—_we're_ just a phone call or an email away, okay?"

Buffy smiled again, nodding. Then she forced herself to turn away and make her way down the street to her house, struggling to keep from looking back the whole way. All too soon she had passed the driveway her Mom's SUV was sitting in and made her way up the walkway and then up the steps to the door. There, she carefully set her suitcase down and took her backpack off, setting both to the side of the door before forcing herself to face it. Then she took a deep breath, raised her hand, and knocked firmly on the hard surface.

She took a step back as she heard her Mom approaching to answer, looking down slightly as she struggled to hold tears back. She looked up as the door opened, to meet her Mom's surprised – but thankfully not angry – eyes.

Buffy suddenly found her Mom's arms around her and leaned forward, finally letting tears fall as she rested her head on the older blonde's shoulder.

* * *

**End of **_**Chapter 8: Farewells**_**.**

**

* * *

**

AN: Well, how was that? I was going to make this chapter the last & the epilogue, but it was getting a bit long, so I decided to break it up instead. I hope everyone liked it. After this, we just have the epilogue to go, and then this part of the series is over, but don't worry, there are several more stories to follow after this! :-D

***1* - I know I borrowed a LOT of lines from "Annie" in this chapter, but I was trying to fit the fic back in with the canon. And you gotta, admit this episode had a LOT of great lines! **

***2* - I know nothing about phone cards, etc. And I'm not sure if cell phones were rare in the late 90s. they are, please ignore the historical inconsistency and just enjoy the story...**

***3* - On the laptop that Charlie gave Buffy... Yes, I know I set the story in 1996 and the laptop would be ridiculously expensive no matter how much our favorite genius is paid by the big companies he occasionally consults for, and that the laptop would probably be too big to fit in her backpack... But Charlie got new models, because he was consulting for the companies that made them. With that in mind, I'm just asking you to PLEASE stretch your imagination and ignore that inconsistency. PLEASE? *pouts* This is fan 'fiction' you know, "FICTION" being the key word? And imagination being a very important concept to said writing style?**

**Feedback is, as always, immensely appreciated.**

**Bye for now! ^_^**

**Jess S**

**

* * *

**

NEXT:

_**Epilogue: The First Call**_**.**


	10. Epilogue: The First Call

**Disclaimers: ****Buffy the Vampire Slayer**** belongs to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy & Fox. ****Numb3rs**** belongs to CBS. (NOT ME!!!)  
AN: ...OK. This ended up being quite a bit longer then I expected. Seriously, it was supposed to be just the phone call, but then it sort of kept going...and going...and going. Anyway, I hope you like it. Sorry for the wait. **

**Many thanks to **_**katgurl**_** and **_**NeverTooOld**_** for beta-reading ****First Meeting****! **

**And I'll say more at the end, but for now: Enjoy! ^_^**

**Warnings: Spoilers for **_**Buffy the Vampire Slayer**_**, S3E2: "Dead Man's Party."**

**First Meeting**

_**Part I in Mathematics & Magic**_

By Jess S

_**Epilogue: The First Call**_

_**Eppes' House, Pasadena, California – September 10, 1996 **_

0 0 0 3 1 3 1 1 8 1 2 9 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

"_Ch-Charlie?_" a familiar, yet painfully tearful voice came through his phone.

The smile that had spread across Charlie's face when he'd read the caller ID a moment before turned into a frown. This wasn't how he was hoping to start Annie's first phone call from Sunnydale.

"Annie, what's wrong?" He asked, just as he realized that the anxiety he'd been feeling over the last two days may have been more Annie's than his. Apparently the increased distance didn't stop their bond, at least not for strong emotions. Not that knowing that really helped. It just let him know that Annie really was as distraught as she sounded on the phone.

"_I-I w-want to come h—back. I want to come back. C-Can I come back?_"

Charlie suppressed a sigh and tried to focus on things that he found calming, hoping that his much calmer emotional state might help sooth hers a couple hundred miles away. After a few seconds of thinking about hot cocoa and his mother's chicken soup, his mind quickly turned to math as an escape for anxiety. "Come back here, you mean?" he asked quietly, careful to keep his tone neutral. "To Pasadena?"

"_Y-Yeah. Can I?_"

The mathematician pushed back the large part of him that wanted to yell 'yes.' Knowing that it was the wrong answer, and hoping she didn't sense the repressed response. "Why don't you tell me why first?"

"_Wh-Why I want to come back?_"

"Yes. Was your mom mad? Giles? Willow? Xander? What's happened since my mom and I dropped you off on Sunday afternoon?"

_**Summers' House, Sunnydale, California – September 10, 1996 **_

0 0 0 2 2 1 6 6 2 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 7 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Buffy shook her head, wiping a hand across her eyes to get rid of the tears that were blurring her sight as she looked around her bedroom. A bedroom that barely felt like hers anymore, after living with the Eppes for so long.

A loud crash from downstairs made her wince as the noise was pounded into her head by a quickly worsening headache.

"_What was that?_" Charlie asked, the clear concern in his voice indicating the noise had been loud enough for him to hear it over the phone.

"I—um—I really don't want to know," Buffy sighed, shaking her head as images of any one of her mom's more breakable antiques downstairs now lying in ruins among the maniacs her friends had brought to her house.

After a moment she heard Charlie sigh again. "_Come on, Annie. Talk to me. I can't help if you don't tell me what's wrong._"

"_Everything's wrong!_" Buffy protested, a sob escaping her as more tears rushed out. "M-My friends d-don't want to talk to me! Or-Or do anything with me! Hell, they don't even need me for Slaying any more! Th-They've got this whole system—A-And I can't go back to school—I-I can't even go _near_ the school! And my m-mom..." she shook her head, another sob jumping out. "She said m-me being here makes everything worse!"

_**Eppes' House, Pasadena, California – September 10, 1996 **_

0 0 0 3 1 3 1 1 8 1 2 9 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Charlie had wondered, when Annie started complaining, why she was asking if she could come back. She knew that Lily already had a room set up for her next door. His parents certainly would never turn her away, they'd all but adopted her this past summer. They probably would have, too, if his mom hadn't gotten the idea of match-making stuck in her head early on.

The more he thought about it, the only reason he could think of was that she really didn't want to leave Sunnydale. Subconsciously, at least, she knew she shouldn't. Maybe it was the Slayer urging her to stay on the Hellmouth. Maybe it was her sister-Slayer's need. Maybe it was Buffy clinging to her mom and her friends. But whatever the reason, a part of her wanted to stay, and she was calling him for reassurance. Well, that and apparently to rant a bit. Having figured that out, now he just had to hope that he was right and that he was able to live up to his expectations.

That mathematician winced at each complaint his friend uttered, closing his eyes and suppressing a sigh as the anger that had been building up halfway through her tirade seemed to depart when she mentioned her mother. Having figured that out, now he just had to hope that he was right and that he was able to live up to her expectations.

"_P-Please, Charlie. I h-hate it here, c-can't I come back?_"

"You're always welcome here, Annie," Charlie told her softly. "But are you sure that's what you want?"

"_Wh-What?_"

"You've only been back in Sunnydale for around fifty-four hours, right? Don't you think you should give it a little more time?"

"_B-But—_"

Charlie grimaced as he spoke, but forced himself to continue with a calm, neutral tone. "Don't your friends, your mom and the new Slayer deserve a little more time? Don't you?"

Annie was quiet for several long seconds, but then she released a defeated, weary sigh. "_I—I guess so._"

Charlie bit his lower lip thoughtfully, before telling her, "Give it a week."

"_What?_"

"Give yourself, and your friends, one week. Call me every day, several times a day, if you need to talk. But if you still want to leave one week from today, my mom and I will come get you, okay?"

_**Summers' House, Sunnydale, California – September 10, 1996 **_

0 0 0 2 2 1 6 6 2 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 7 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Buffy closed her eyes and, after taking a deep breaths, nodded shakily. "O-Okay." She sat down on her bed next to her half-packed suitcase.

After a moment, Charlie spoke up again. "_Hey, I have an idea. When I was away at Princeton, do you remember, I told you about how homesick I was there? Even with my mom there?_"

"Y-Yeah, so?"

"_So, one of my teachers talked me into going to a counselor for a few sessions, and—_"

"You want me to see a shrink?" Buffy cut in, aghast.

"_No! No. I want you to try something she had me do._"

"Oh," Buffy sighed, and swallowed slightly before she continued. "What?"

"_She had me keep a journal—or a diary, if you want—focusing on everything that happened to me each day, and how it made me feel._" Charlie told her, his voice hopeful and affable. "_I think you should do that, for at least the next week. You can write in a notebook. Or on your laptop. Wherever... just get it out._"

"O-Okay, I, uh, I can do that." Buffy nodded, frowning slightly. "I think."

"_You can write them as emails to me. Or fake letters to someone. Me, your mom, Willow—anyone. As long as you get some of what you're feeling out. Okay?_" Charlie asked, still sounding hopeful. "_You think you can do that? No one else ever has to see them, but—Okay?_"

"Yeah. Yeah, I think so." Buffy nodded, glancing at her open bedroom door with a sigh as the loud music and party-noises from below came clearly up the stairs. "I'm, uh, I'm sorry for bothering you."

_**Eppes' House, Pasadena, California – September 10, 1996 **_

0 0 0 3 1 3 1 1 8 1 2 9 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Charlie shook his head forcefully, "Don't be silly, Annie. You can call me any time."

Annie was quiet for several long seconds, before a soft "_Thank you._" came through.

"You're welcome." Charlie replied, frowning as he hoped what he'd done and told Annie would actually help her. She was at the very least his dearest friend. The only friend he really had outside of academia, and one of the very few anywhere near his age. In many ways this summer she had taken his big brother's place as his protector, but unlike Don she needed him, too. And he wouldn't be able to live with himself it he let her down. After a long moment of silence, he sighed and shook his head. "You'll call me tomorrow evening?"

"_Yeah. Yeah, I will._" Annie replied, her voice still soft. "_Thanks, Charlie._"

"You're welcome, Annie." Charlie nodded, a small smile breaking through his frown at the warmth in her voice. But it disappeared again as he remembered one of the things she'd complained about a short time before. "Uh, Annie, what do you mean you can't go near your school? You were cleared of all the charges against you, weren't you?"

"_Yeah,_" Annie replied, a distinct note of resentment working its way into her tone. "_But the little troll that's in charge of the school doesn't care._"

"The Principal won't let you back in?" Charlie's frown deepened. "On what grounds?"

"_I'm destructive to school property when there are vampires or demons around or on it, and to students that attack me._"

"Attack you?"

"_Yeah, I was hanging out with the captain of the school swim team and he got a little grabby so I punched him—Snyder saw me break his nose and tried to have me suspended. Giles talked him out of it that time, but he's always wanted to get rid of me. So he's not going to let me back in._"

"Wait a minute, wasn't Principal Snyder the one that first accused you of the murder and assault charges in the first place?"

"_Y-Yeah. I was kneeling next to Kendra when he brought the cops in._" Annie sighed, but Charlie was relieved to hear that much of the insecurity and misery she had been feeling a short time before seemed to have been replaced with irritation. "_I, uh, I guess I should go, Charlie. Get back to the party before anyone worries._"

"Right," Charlie nodded, forcing a smile and ignoring the feeling that Annie had no intention of returning to the party as he finished. "Goodnight, Annie. I'll talk to you tomorrow night."

"_Yeah, tomorrow night. Goodnight._"

_**Summers' House, Sunnydale, California – September 10, 1996 **_

0 0 0 2 2 1 6 6 2 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 7 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Buffy sighed, shaking her head as she started unpacking the bag she'd just finished packing when she'd decided to call Charlie a few minutes before. It barely took her a few seconds to put her all clothes away. Then she pushed the bag under her bed, and sat down again. She closed her eyes a moment in thought, then sighed and moved back to her closet to pull out the backpack she'd bought in LA and hadn't unpacked—or used at all—yet.

Moving over to her desk she sat down in the chair and opened it, pulling out the notebook and the book of problems Charlie had given her to work on.

It wouldn't be the same as working through it with him, but math and numbers were so much a part of who Charlie was. So she'd found as she struggled through the math problems with him that she couldn't help but find them a bit comforting too. At least when you did the problem right it always made sense. And she needed something to make sense right now.

She sighed again as she opened the book to the last page she'd worked on and opened her notebook to a new page, carefully writing the first problem out and focusing on it, trying to remember the way Charlie explained it to her. She chuckled slightly at the thought of having her new friend in her head, but when it came to math, there probably wasn't any better voice to be hearing. Hopefully he wouldn't talk to her when she was doing English-work though. She was bad enough on her own!

_**Eppes' House, Pasadena, California – September 10, 1996 **_

0 0 0 3 1 3 1 1 8 1 2 9 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Charlie hung up his cell phone and stared at it for several seconds, before he sighed and opened the phone book, scrolling through the list of numbers until he reached one of the many numbers he'd only recently added, and then hit 'send.'

The phone rang three times before an automated-voice answered. "_California State Superintendent Mark Williamson's Office is currently closed. You may leave a message or call back during normal business hours, between the hours of eight-AM to five-PM. To leave a message for the superintendent, please press one and wait for the tone._" (1)

Charlie shook his head with a rueful glance at the clock as he pressed one. Of course the office wouldn't be open well after nine P.M. He was surprised to hear the phone actually ring instead of offering the promised tone.

It only rang once, before the phone was picked up. "_Mark Williamson,_" a somewhat familiar—weary sounding—voice answered.

"Hello, Dr. Williamson," Charlie replied, forcing the formal tone of voice he'd become accustom to using with high-ranking officials in academia. "This is Charles Eppes, we met last week at _CalSci_?"

"_Yes, yes, hello Dr. Eppes! How are you?_"

"Good, thank you. You're working late?" He noted, unable to keep curiosity out of his tone as he called attention to the obvious.

"_Yes, well, school just started, so I have a lot of paper work to handle. And it's better to spend a few late nights at the office then the entire weekend, right?_"

"I guess," Charlie agreed, laughing softly.

Still chuckling, the superintendent asked. "_And what about you? Are you all ready for the upcoming semester? I know you don't have your office yet, and you still have a few months before you start, but there's nothing wrong with getting ahead. You might want to give some guest lectures and attend functions at CalSci this semester, too. Get to know your peers and your soon-to-be-students. I do hope you're not calling to quit? I don't think I could handle that right now._"

"Quit? Oh no! No, no." Charlie shook his head forcefully from side to side for the second time that night. "No, I'm ready. Or as ready as I can be, I think. I've already put together my class plans for the first half of the semester. And I've spoken to Dr. Fleinhardt about a few guest-lectures, still have to clear it with the dean though."

"_Good, good. So what can I do for you?_"

"This, uh, actually has nothing to do with _CalSci_, I'm afraid. Actually, I probably should be calling someone else entirely, but when I heard about a problem with a school your name came to mind, so..." Charlie shrugged, trailing off uncertainly as it suddenly occurred to him that he was going much higher up in the school system then he probably should for this call.

"_Nonsense, nonsense. I'm happy to help!_" the other doctor replied, his tone as cheerful as Charlie remembered the man himself being when he met him at the welcoming luncheon for new professors as the California Institute of Science. "_What's the problem?_"

Charlie sighed, "A good friend of mine lost someone last spring. A friend of hers was murdered in her high school library, and she found the body shortly before the principle did. Apparently, her principal then accused her of the crime, scaring her into running. She's since been cleared of all charges, but Principal Snyder isn't willing to let her back into the school."

"_I'm, uh, I'm really sorry to hear that, Dr. Eppes. Principal Snyder, you said? This is Sunnydale High School we're talking about, right?_"

"Um, yes, actually," Charlie blinked in surprise. "How'd you know?"

Dr. Williamson sighed heavily, "_I've been the Superintendent of Public Instruction in California for two years now, and in that time I've needed to oversee the hiring process for three principles. I remember Armin* Snyder. He's a real piece of work._" The superintendent sighed again. "_To be honest, I didn't want to hire him, but no one else was interested in the job._" (2)

Charlie frowned, but nodded as the details of the previous principal's death came back to him. "Because of Principal Flutie."

"_Well, uh, yes. Murder is bad enough, you know? But it's not every day that someone actually gets eaten in his office, and during school hours, too! The police said it was wild dogs, but there's been some speculation about it. So, while Snyder also came strongly recommended by Sunnydale's Mayor, he was also the only one that didn't seem to care about how Bob Flutie died and was willing to take the job there. For a higher salary then was originally offered, of course._"

"Of course," Charlie replied, shaking his head as he also sighed. "It's just that it took me weeks to convince Annie that she needed to go back to school and complete her education. She's really a very bright girl, but from what she's said I'm the only person that's ever given her a chance to actually learn." Remembering Annie's comment on Snyder wanting her to be expelled, as well as the story behind it and several other stories of the trouble she tended to have with teachers at Sunnydale High, Charlie winced. "Actually, it sounds like Snyder and his staff go out of their way to make a lot of trouble for her."

"_What makes you say that?_"

"When the captain of the swim team, in her words 'got a little grabby' last year, Snyder saw and then tried to expel her for breaking his nose. The swim captain's, I mean." Charlie quickly clarified, not sure how much he really needed to turn the Superintendent against the principal.

"_I see,_" Dr. Williamson replied, his tone unhappy. "_How old is she?_"

"Seventeen, now. I think she was sixteen, then." Charlie replied, shaking his head. "This is supposed to be her senior year. I don't know what it would do to her self-confidence if she has to repeat the year."

"_Well, I don't think that'll be necessary. School just started, after all. Tell you what, I'll send one of my assistants to Sunnydale tomorrow to sort this out. I'll even go myself if I need to... Though I hope it doesn't come to that. I'd rather not have to look for a new principal, as the year's already started.._"

"I, uh, I hope not too," Charlie agreed quickly, nodding. "And thank you."

"_You're quite welcome, Dr. Eppes... Oh, and what was the young lady's name? Annie?_"

"Oh, yes. Well, Anne's her middle name. Her full name is Buffy Anne Summers."

"_Buffy?_" the Superintendant chuckled, "_Well, there's no doubt she was born in California. Does she go by Annie, then?_"

"Not really. That's just what I've always called her. Most people know her as 'Buffy,' I believe."

"_I see. Well, we'll see what we can do about her situation as quickly as possible._" Dr. Williamson assured him, his tone serious before lightening a bit as he continued. "_I look forward to seeing one of your lectures when you start in the spring. You'll send me a schedule of your classes?_"

"Oh, uh, of course."

"_All right, then. Have a nice night, Dr. Eppes._"

"And you as well, Dr. Williamson. I hope you plan on going home soon?"

"_Why what time is—Oh my. Yes, I'd better go now. My wife's going to have a few things to say to me already._"

Charlie shook his head, suppressing chuckles. "Goodnight, Dr. Williamson." He hung up the phone and then sat down in his bed, glancing at the notebook he'd been working in before Annie called and then shaking his head, carefully setting his phone down on the bedside table as he lay back on his bed.

Maybe if he tried meditating now it would help Annie calm down, since their bond seemed to work both ways. However, his day must have been more tiring then he'd originally thought. Because he was asleep moments later, his sleeping hours to then be haunted by a creepy-looking mask and zombies.

_**Summers' House, Sunnydale, California – September 10, 1996 **_

0 0 0 2 2 1 6 6 2 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 7 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Buffy didn't know how much time had passed before she heard the footfalls of someone coming up the stairs and towards her room. Glancing over the three problems she'd managed to solve so far, and then at the seven more she still had to go, she sighed. One would think she'd be able to finish at least a full page without help or interruptions. She turned towards the doorway just as Willow raised her hand to knock on the open door.

"H-Hi, Buffy. What're you doing up here?"

Buffy sighed, shaking her head as she set her pencil down and turned towards her friend. "Nothing I guess."

"Don't you like the party?"

Buffy bit her lip and shrugged, almost saying 'yes' just to pacify her like she had downstairs, but then shook her head with a sigh. "Not really... it's too much, you know? I don't know most of those people," she shrugged and grimaced slightly, "and a bunch of them think the party's for me because I just got home from drug rehab."

"What?" Willow blinked, her eyes wide. "No. Who—"

"Nobody," Buffy shrugged again. "At least no one I know. Are you," She bit her lip and looked down for a moment, before forcing herself to look at her friend and meet her eyes. "Are you still avoiding me?"

"I'm not—"

Buffy raised an eyebrow at the redhead, who then sighed.

"I guess I am. I'm sorry. It's just—" Willow shook her head, and sighed. "It's not easy, Buffy! I know you're going through stuff, but... so am I."

Buffy winced, shaking her head, "I'm sorry for leaving and making you guys worry—"

"No! I don't just mean that." Willow cut her off, shaking her head again. "I mean, my _life_. You know? I-I'm having all sorts of—I'm dating. I'm having _serious_ dating, with a _werewolf_. And I'm studying witchcraft and killing vampires. And I didn't have anyone to talk to about all this scary life stuff." The redhead finally met her eyes, which Buffy saw were just as tearful as her own had been a little while before. "And you were my best friend."

Buffy looked away for a minute, then forced herself to rise from her chair, making her way over to her tearful friend and gently slipping a loose arm around her tense shoulders, remembering all the times Charlie had done that for her this summer. "You have no idea how much I missed you." Buffy told her, with a gentle squeeze around her shoulders. "How much I missed everyone." She grimaced as Willow pulled away from her and took a few steps away before turning back to her, crossing her arms. "I wanted to call every day."

"It doesn't matter if you wanted to, Buffy," Willow shook her head. "It doesn't make it okay that you didn't."

"What's going on?"

Buffy jumped as her mom came in behind her, then turned slightly, taking a few steps back so that she could see both her mom and her friend easily. "Mom, please could you just give Willow and me a few minutes alone?"

"Is everything all right?" Her mom asked, looking between the two of them, then she froze as something else caught her eye. "What is that?"

Both girls looked towards the large backpack by her desk.

Willow frowned, her tearful eyes widening. "You're running away again?" her tone comprised of equal parts shock and horror.

"No!" Buffy shook her head, glaring at both of them. "No, I—that—It's just for school."

Her Mom visibly relaxed—if only a little bit—clear relief in her eyes as she nodded, glancing at the backpack again. "Is it new?"

"Yeah. It—I got it in LA."

"Oh. For school, th-that's good," Willow commented, clearly equal parts relieved and embarrassed. "When are you—What'd Principal Snyder say?"

Buffy started to respond, but stopped as her mom sighed.

"We're still working on that, I'm afraid. That despicable little rodent man is determined to keep Buffy out of school."

"Oh." Willow frowned, shaking her head. "Can he do that?"

"Legally?" her mom sighed again. "I don't think so. But we'll have to wait and see how it turns out." She glanced at Buffy. "What are you doing up here? Shouldn't you be spending time with your friends?"

"The people downstairs aren't my friends, mom. I don't know half of them, and most of the others I've only passed in the hallways at school or around town." Buffy shrugged, wincing as she brought a hand up to her now screaming temple. She'd had a headache for a while now, but it seemed to be getting worse. She frowned as she realized that said headache seemed to be bothering the Slayer too.

"Buffy? What is it, honey? Are you alright?"

"Y-Yeah, just a—" Buffy waved her hand slightly, shrugging again, only to wince as another pang of pain pounded through her skull. "Just a h-headache. I think." She winced again as the pounding increased, pounding the sounds that were coming from the party downstairs into her brain. "A-Actually," she shook her head. "Wil? Could you, um, maybe ask Oz to start clearing everyone out. I a-appreciate the idea, but—"

"N-No, no problem!" Willow cut in, shaking her head and frowning worriedly. "If you're not feeling well we'll party later. I'll, um, I'll just go tell Oz right now."

"Do you want help?"

Willow shook her head, "No, Mrs. Summers—"

"Willow, how many times do I have to ask you to call me Joyce?"

"Sorry, Joyce. Don't worry. We'll take care of it." Willow told her, before glancing at Buffy again. "I'll be back in a few minutes, okay?"

Buffy sighed as she sank down onto her bed, her hands coming up to her head as she winced in pain again.

"Honey, can I get you something? Some Tylenol maybe?" Her mom shook her head sympathetically as Buffy glanced at her again. "It's been a while since you've had such a bad headache, hasn't it?"

"Y-Yeah." Buffy agreed, sighing as she rubbed clockwise circles into her temples.

She used to get migraines occasionally, but they hadn't been an issue since she'd become the Slayer. She'd thought her super-healing power took care of it. Normally she only got headaches now if she took a blow to the head in a fight. Or—

Buffy froze abruptly as the realization struck.

She got headaches around strong demons and dark magic. Usually before or after a vision from the supposed Powers That Be.

Rising abruptly, Buffy kept her eyes closed and pulled her Slayer-senses to the front of her mind, struggling to listen to them as the Slayers-spirit rushed through her mind, making the pain lessen as she finally listened to what it was trying to tell her.

"Honey? What's wrong?"

"Sorry, mom, I've got to—" Buffy stopped abruptly, rushing through the door as she heard a loud crash from downstairs, followed by screams. "Stay here!"

Then she flew down the steps and into the living room just in time to see two strange looking men run through the now non-existent bay window, joining a third of their kind in attacking the petrified party-goers.

Quickly taking in the scene, Buffy winced as she heard another crash from in the kitchen, shouting at Xander and Cordelia even as she rushed into the living room to start fighting off the strange men, "Xander, kitchen!"

"I got your back!" the other teen replied, quickly running off with his girlfriend right behind him.

Buffy grunted as she knocked one of the men down with a punch and then kicked another back towards the window.

"Are these vampires?"

Buffy's eyes flew to her mom, who was clearly frightened, but struggling to help as the men—who Buffy suddenly realized looked and smelled like they should be dead, just like the cat from that morning—rose and came at her. Her mom threw a vase at him, momentarily halting his progress and making him stagger, giving Buffy the time to whack him down again and catch the stake that Willow threw to her.

"Buffy, heads up!"

Not really expecting it to work, she stabbed the stake in his heart anyway and watched as he froze for a moment, before ripping the stake out and slowly rising again.

"Nope," Buffy shook her head, "not vampires." Looking around, she shook her head. "We've gotta get 'em back outside." Seeing several people acknowledge her observation, she quickly grabbed one of the men even as she heard Willow, Oz and some of the band members struggling with another.

As she pushed one of the moving-dead-but-not-vampire-men towards the door, Buffy frowned as she saw dozens of other zombies—cause that's the only thing she could think of that they might be, though she'd ask Giles later—on her front yard, all intent on coming into the house. She stepped to the side to let her friends throw another zombie out, throwing in a punch and a hard push herself as it tried to escape their hold, before slamming the door behind it.

Buffy started thinking as she hurriedly slid the dead-bolt home. All of the zombies were coming here. All of them wanted to get into he house. But _why?_

They weren't after her. Or anyone else, really. They didn't seemed to be focused on anything. Just invading her home and killing anybody in their way. So this probably wasn't a zombie-army raised by some kind of dark-witch or demon to kill her.

Come to think of it, why had a _cat_ been raised? She was tempted to ignore it, wincing as the zombies finally gave up on the door and instead focused on the windows again. But Charlie always said that every variable had to be considered. He'd usually add something about filters and equations, too, but she didn't really understand any of that. Just enough to know she really shouldn't ignore the cat. So what the hell was up with the cat?

Buffy ran into the living room as two more zombies managed to get in. She grabbed one that had some pretty nasty burns all over its face and chest, and threw it out the window. She nodded as her friends managed to catch the one—which had a gaping hole in its head—and throw him out after his friend.

Maybe it was because the cat had been close by? The zombies that were attacking now had to be from all over Sunnydale. But the cat had died in their basement and been buried in their front yard. The next day it was a zombie-cat that also wanted to get into the house...

And went straight for her mom's bedroom! Where the other zombies might be aiming for, as they were all staggering/fighting their way towards the stairs.

The cat ran up the stairs, into her mom's room and hid under the table that was right under the mask her mom had put up the night before it died—or at least right before Buffy found it's body.

Glancing around, she couldn't suppress a smile as she saw her friends cleverly blocking the large window with what looked like a table. Seeing that she did have a moment to think, Buffy quickly closed her eyes and focused inward, opening herself up to the Slayer as she'd done only rarely in the past.

It took barely a second to confirm what logic had already told her. Dark magic—like a demon—coming from upstairs.

Buffy nodded to herself and then glanced towards the living room again, where the band members were still trying to keep more of the monsters from coming in through the window. "Wil!" she called, continuing when the redhead turned to look at her worriedly. "Keep 'em busy, I'll be right back!" Without waiting for a reply, she dashed up the stairs, following the Slayer-sense as it pulled her towards the mask/demon.

When she reached the bedroom, she felt the Slayer snarl as her eyes fell on the creepy mask. Its eyes were glowing, and the demonic presence she'd been feeling was definitely coming from it.

Buffy took all this in even as she made her way towards the mask, snatching her mom's hammer off the bookcase shelf it'd been left on after her mom used it to hang the mask now too long ago. Then she was moving towards the mask again, not hesitating in the slightest as she swung the hammer all the way back and then forward, right between the mask's eyes with all her strength.

Partially smashed, it fell off the wall as she pulled the hammer back. The Slayer grinned slightly as she heard strange shrieks from downstairs, raising the hammer again and swinging it down onto the mask. And again, and again, continuing until the glowing-red eyes were shattered and the red-glow dimmed and then disappeared entirely, becoming the crushed and crumbling remains of simple black stone before the whole mask disappeared.

Then total silence reigned through the house for several moments, until finally she heard people starting to move hesitantly about downstairs. Hearing no more sounds of combat or panic, and sensing that her demonic adversary was gone, Buffy nodded in satisfaction. She set the hammer down where the mask had fallen before heading back downstairs.

All eyes turned to her as she entered the living room, and she smiled as her mom ran over to her, seizing her in a quick hug.

"Honey! Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, mom," Buffy told her, giving her a gentle smile before looking around. "Everyone okay?"

"Uh, I don't think so." Xander's voice came from the hallway that led to the kitchen and everyone hurried towards him. He was kneeling on the floor next to the body of an older woman, Cordelia hovering behind him.

"Oh God, Pat!"

Buffy watched her mom run forward, her eyes sad. A less than welcome perk of the Slayer package was that she could sense life, even more so now that she had started trying to work on her empathetic abilities to help understand her bond with Charlie. She wasn't sensing anything from her mom's friend. And a glance over the older woman's form confirmed her suspicions as she noticed that the woman's neck was definitely broken.

"Is she—?"

"She's dead!" Mrs. Summer's cut off Willow's question, looking up at all of them with panicked eyes. "My God, she's dead!"

Before she could think of anything to say to this new development, Buffy heard quick, familiar footsteps coming up the front steps and turned just in time to see her Watcher pushing the heavily abused door open: apparently the dead-bolt had been defeated by the dead-army while she was slaying the mask.

"Buffy!" Giles breathed a sigh of relief, "Is everything—" He stopped as his eyes fell on the dead body they were gathered around, and he sighed again, this time in regret. "Is everyone else all right?"

"Yeah," Buffy confirmed after a glance around, seeing no injuries beyond a few bruises. "We're all good. The zombies—were they zombies?"

"Yes, Buffy," the Watcher confirmed with a small smile, the rest of his expression a small battle between surprise and pride. "They were zombies, what happened to them?"

"Well, I think they killed some of the kids that were partying here, but everyone they killed rose right away as a dem—I mean zombies, too. They disappeared when I destroyed the mask." Buffy winced as she admitted that, shooting her mom an apologetic look. "Sorry, mom. I had to slay your mask."

"My mask? What—"

"The Nigerian mask you recently acquired held the power of a zombie demon," Giles cut in, his tone gentle, but something in his expression telling Buffy that he was at least a little annoyed with the situation. "It's name was _Ovu Mobani_, or _Evil Eye_." He raised an eyebrow at the Slayer, "How did you know to destroy it?"

Buffy shrugged slightly, one hand going to her head, the headache that had been developing before now thankfully gone. "It was giving me a headache."

"So the mask was calling the zombies here?" Xander asked, shaking his head slightly. "Not that I know anything about 'the mask' besides what you three have said right now in front of me..."

"Yes, Xander. The spirit of _Ovu Mobani_ was trapped in the mask, which then had the demon's abilities to raise the dead as zombies, using power generated by nearby living beings. That," Giles told Buffy, "was undoubtedly what was giving you a headache."

"It was stealing my energy?" Buffy frowned, and then shook her head. "I didn't feel tired."

"No, I don't doubt that your powers were fighting _Ovu Mobani_ on the spiritual plane. The powers of the Slayer are more then just the physical ones you use most often, after all. _Mobani_ probably could not steal much, if any, of your energy. But it could steal from others. It stole your mother's last night, to raise the stray cat. And—"

"It was feeding on the party to raise all those other zombies?" Willow guessed, smiling slightly when Giles nodded his agreement with the educated guess.

"Well, what you have happened if they got the mask?" Oz asked, coming up beside his smiling girlfriend to wrap a gentle arm around her shoulders.

"If one of the zombies had managed to put the mask on, it would have become the demon incarnate."

"Worse then a zombie?" Cordelia guessed and Giles nodded, looking a bit irritated again.

"Yes, considerably worse." The Watcher confirmed, before looking at his Slayer's eyes. "How did you know to destroy _Mobani_'s eyes, Buffy?"

"His eyes?" Buffy shook her head and shrugged again. "I just grabbed a hammer and kept hitting it until it disappeared."

"_Pat!_"

Everyone turned towards the body again at Mrs. Summers's startled exclamation, just in time to see the corpse finish fading slowly out of existence.

"What? Where did she go?"

Giles sighed again, shaking his head and taking his glasses off, a handkerchief suddenly in his hand to clean them with as he explained. "She must have died while _Mobani_'s power was still present and focused. Thus, like all of the zombie you were just fighting, her body has been pulled into the demon's native dimension." Putting his glasses back on he moved forward, easily moving between the uncomfortable teenagers before reaching down to pull the still stunned Mrs. Summers to her feet. "I'm sorry, Joyce. But nothing can be done for it."

"But, she needs a funeral and—"

"Her body no longer exists. _Mobani_'s power claimed it, and when that power was forced to leave this dimension the bodies it had claimed went with it, and were undoubtedly destroyed in the passage, becoming pure energy."

"So defeating Ova, um, Evil-Eye-guy really just made him stronger?" Xander asked, frowning. "How does that work?"

"No, not stronger, Xander," Giles shook his head, giving Mrs. Summers' shoulder a gentle squeeze before releasing her. "The return of the excess power was more what mages—or magic-users—would call a magical backlash. And a very severe one. What's more, he no longer has any connection to this dimension. At least not unless there are more masks made in his honor and empowered with demonic rituals." At the looks everyone was then giving him, he shook his head. "Which is very unlikely, I'm happy to say."

"Oh, good." Buffy nodded in relief. Then winced as she looked around, taking in the massive amounts of destruction the party-turned-battle had reaped on her house.

"Yeah," her mom agreed with a sigh. After a moment the older woman looked around, shaking her head slightly. "So, is this a typical day at the office?"

"No," Buffy grinned teasingly, wrapping an arm around her mother's shoulders. "This was nothing." Her grin widened at the wide-eyed look her mother sent her.

"Hey, uh, nice moves there, Buff."

Buffy's grin turned into a full blown smile as she turned back to her friend. "You too, Xander. You too."

_**Snyder's Office, High School, Sunnydale, California – September 11, 1996 **_

0 0 0 7 9 1 2 5 1 9 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Giles shook his head as he stepped into the high school principal's office to be met with an angry glare. "I'd like to have a word with you."

"If that word is '_Buffy_,' then I have two words for you—_good_ and _riddance_." The principal replied, his tone harsh as he finished packing his briefcase and snapped it closed. "Now, if you don't mind, I have an appointment with the mayor."

"You can't keep her out of this school," Giles objected, shaking his head as he tried to reason with the obstinate man. Now knowing that he had the Council's support in helping Buffy return to school in Sunnydale, the Watcher felt much more confidant in challenging the local authority figure. The Council had a great deal of influence all around the world, after all, including within the United States government to some degree.

Snyder chuckled as he slipped his jacket on, shaking his head and smirking. "I think you'll find that I can."

"You had no grounds for expelling her."

"I have grounds, I have precedent. And a tingly kind of a feeling."

"Buffy Summers is a minor and is entitled to a public education. Your personal dislike of the girl does not legally entitle you—"

"Take it up with the city council, then," Snyder suggested, pushing by him.

"I thought I'd start with the state supreme court," Giles retorted, smirking as he turned to watch the school principal stop in his tracks. "I understand that you're powerful in local circles, but I believe I can make life very difficult for you, professionally speaking," he told the man, his smirk widening. "And Buffy _will_ be allowed back in."

Snyder stared at him for a moment, before shaking his head. "Sorry. I'm not convinced."

Giles grabbed the younger man's collar as he turned to leave and pulled him back several feet, slamming him into the wall. "Would you like me to convince you?"

Before the startled authoritarian could reply, a knock at the door made Giles set him down and step back slightly, raising an eyebrow at him.

Again, Snyder stared, but the librarian's raised eyebrow seemed to bring him out of it. "_What?_" he snapped towards the door, then watched as it opened and his secretary of the month stuck her head in hesitantly.

"P-Principal Snyder, sir, Mr. Walters* is here to see you." (3)

"Who?" Snyder snapped, frowning. "I have a meeting with the mayor in a half-an-hour, I can't—"

"He's from the California Superintendent's office," the secretary cut in, before blinking, clearly surprised at her own bravado as she hurried on. "He just got here from LA. And he says it's important."

Both Snyder and Giles stared at her in surprise. A visit from the state was a relatively rare occurrence, and surprise visits were generally non-existent.

Suddenly Snyder shook his head, quickly snapping. "Very well, send him in. And call the Mayor's office. Tell them I'll be a late, due to an emergency."

"O-Of course, sir."

As the secretary ducked out to fetch the visitor, Snyder turned to snap at Giles. "Now if you'll excuse me, Mr. Giles, I will take your concerns under consideration and—"

"Actually, I think I will stay," Giles cut in, smirking again. "Perhaps the Superintendent will be more interested in Miss Summers welfare then you yourself are."

Before Snyder could muster a reply a young man in a business suit entered, briefcase in hand and a pleasant smile on his face. "Good afternoon, Principal Snyder," he paused just inside the doorway and glanced at Giles.

Knowing Snyder wouldn't introduce him, Giles stepped forward. "Good afternoon, Mr. Walters. I am Dr. Rupert Giles, the school librarian."

"Mr. Giles was just leaving," Snyder snapped, shooting a glare at the older man, which was promptly ignored.

"Actually," Walters spoke up before Giles could. "It might be best if he stayed, I believe the matter I am here to discuss concerns him."

"Oh, how so?" Giles inquired, honestly curious and pleased, carefully repressing a smirk much more skillfully than Snyder was hiding his annoyance.

Walters nodded and quickly crossed the office, setting his briefcase on Snyder's desk before opening it and shuffling through the files inside. After a moment he found what he wanted, pulled it out and nodded as he quickly skimmed the first page. "Yes, I thought so."

"What is—" Snyder started to snap his question out, but stopped abruptly as Walters ignored him, cutting him off.

"I had a number of files faxed to me from your office this morning, Mr. Snyder. Incident reports, and whatnot."

"Why?"

The younger man shrugged, "The superintendent received a complaint he could not ignore. Tell me, why did you attempt to suspend Miss Buffy Anne Summers this past April after her altercation with Cameron Walker?"

"What?" Snyder blinked in surprise, but quickly hurried on, "Well, he was—she broke his nose!"

"From several witness accounts collected by Dr. Giles she only did so in self-defense," the assistant superintendent replied with a nod towards the librarian, though his cold eyes were focused on the principal as he continued, his tone hard. "And yet you took no action against Walker?"

"He was on—He was the injured party!" Snyder objected.

"The California education system seeks to provide all students with a rigorous and challenging, but safe, environment, so that they may develop skills and confidence for academic and professional success, as well as to encourage intellectual, artistic, and personal exploration and growth." Walters brandished the file he'd pulled out at them before setting it down. "We do not ignore sexual harassment or poor academic performance just because the offending student is a good athlete."

"Yes, but—"

"Furthermore, your manipulation of the review board only a few weeks later—when Miss Summers was unfortunate enough to stumble upon a murdered friend's body, who's name, I notice was not in the file—was a gross abuse of administrative powers. Though expulsion would have been a proper course of action if Miss Summers had been guilty of the crimes you charged her with, that did not give you grounds to hurry the review board's decision before the police had concluded their investigation and found Miss Summers innocent."

"She attacked an officer!"

"The officers at the scene later admitted to behaving inappropriately at the scene," Walters held up another file. "And they chose against pressing charges."

"Yes," Giles cut in before Snyder could protest again. "I was just explaining to Principal Snyder that he had no grounds on which to expel Miss Summers, only personal dislike, which doesn't qualify as grounds to deny her a public education."

"And the Superintendent agrees with you," Walters nodded again. "Which is why Miss Summers will be starting school again, here, next week."

"You c—"

"Mr. Snyder, I should warn you that your employment is currently on very unstable grounds. Superintendent Williamson is _not_ pleased with you."

"That girl is delinquent. A reckless, trouble—"

"That may be," Walters pulled out another, very thick file. "But many members of your staff and the student body disagree. Since Miss Summers was expelled your office had received hundreds of letters protesting your decision. Letters that your previous secretary dutifully filed and your present secretary faxed to my office this morning, though apparently she had to open them first."

Giles blinked in pleased surprise at the thick file while Snyder stared in horror.

"So you are here to see that B—Miss Summers is reinstated?" Giles asked, and smiled as the younger man nodded, all the while wondering how the Council had managed to move so quickly, as he'd only spoken to them about it just this morning.

"In part," Walters confirmed with a nod. "I am also here to inspect the school, including the staff and yourself, Mr. Snyder."

Outside the office, Snyder's secretary started when a startled "WHAT?" resonated through the closed door.

_**Eppes' House, Pasadena, California – September 16, 1996 **_

0 0 0 3 1 3 1 1 8 1 2 9 5 0 1 9 0 0 0 1 6 1 5 9 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 5 6 0 0 0 2 2 9 5 2 3 0 0 0

Charlie smiled as he clicked 'keep as new' to save Annie's e-mail. He was happy to see how much she'd improved in just the last few days. The part of him that was still just barely aware of her emotions had already known this, but it was nice to hear—or at least read—it from her, herself.

She had started school again, with two weeks of work to catch up on over the weekend. Mostly in the form of tests and essays. But all in all she was just happy to have her life back on track.

Her sister-Slayer—as she had started calling the other Slayer since she first became consciously aware of her existence—still worried her. One would think the other Slayer should have arrived by now, but realistically they didn't know how the girl was traveling, or how far her journey was. Kendra had been from Jamaica, but the new girl could be from Egypt, Australia, or even just the other side of the country if she had no means of long-distance transportation available to her.

Her friends were happy to have her back. Some words had apparently been exchanged on her long absence, mostly in the form of teasing from Willow, but for the most part all was well.

Annie wasn't quite sure _why_ no one had really asked her about her time in LA after her first night back, when Giles had chided them about giving her time. They seemed intent on focusing on how she hadn't been in Sunnydale, with them, not where she had been. More disturbingly, she sensed empathetically that the topic made them uncomfortable to a great degree, making her wonder just what they thought she had been doing in LA.

Cordelia had asked if she'd been living in a box at one point, but then immediately dropped the subject. Xander had done the same after blurting out something to the effect of 'how much had she been pimping herself out for?' Her mother had apparently been worried about her being dead in a ditch somewhere. Willow and Giles were the only ones who hadn't made a big deal about her disappearance. Since her first discussion with Willow, as well as going to a café in the mall with her for coffees and meeting with both her and Giles to catch up on her studies in the library, Willow had teased her a few times, but that had been it. Still, she seemed very uncomfortable with the subject. Giles hadn't said anything about it either, the closest he'd come in fact was asking what she though they should focus on in her training, all but asking if she _had_ been training at all in her absence. And again, the mention of her being away from Sunnydale made him instantly uncomfortable.

It had been nice the first few days, but it was starting to annoy her. Even her mother hadn't asked about where she'd been, just brushed the discussion aside when Buffy mentioned it offhand, saying she wanted everything to get back to normal.

As a result, no one in Sunnydale knew about Charlie or his parents, who had welcomed Annie into her home for months. They knew nothing about the hell dimension Annie had rescued so many people from, or the shelter and supernatural-watch-organization that they had then formed shortly thereafter.

Reading about this, a part of Charlie _really _wanted to pick up the phone and just call Annie's home phone number. He had it for emergencies, just so he'd be able to contact Annie if she wasn't answering her cell phone. Necessary because she usually had hers turned off, except in the evenings that Charlie might call, or when she called him. But he really wanted to call in the early morning, when Annie would have left for school already and her mom would be the only one there. Just to say "hi" and introduce himself.

A part of him was indignant at the fact that some of Annie's friends thought she had been either living on the streets or in some kind of brothel while in LA. For one thing, she had managed to get herself a job and an apartment when she came here. And yes, she hadn't been taking the best of care of herself, but she had been managing relatively well. If she hadn't been severely depressed because of Angel's death—at her hands—she probably would have done better, but even then she had managed to support herself. And he couldn't understand how her friends, people who's lives she had saved and protected on a regular basis, could doubt her quite so severely.

Still, he knew the phone-call-idea wasn't a good one. For one thing, if he called at midnight, he might get Annie and the late hour might scare her. Then she'd be angry with him.

For another, it was just a bad idea.

Much as he wanted to be more involved in Annie's life as it was, they were going in separate directions at the moment. He was following his dream and becoming a college professor, already having become a star in the field of mathematics with his cognitive emergence work and Annie was guarding the Hellmouth and finish high school.

The bond between them would keep them together, he knew. From what the witches he'd spoken to so far—members of the LA covens that had befriended Lily and everyone involved with the watch-group shortly after it'd been formed—that bond was likely to last forever and grow stronger. To stop that, they'd have to totally stop all contact with one another, which would mean never speaking to each other or even thinking about one another. The only other thing they could do was magically sever the bond, something every witch he'd spoken to vehemently discouraged.

The more common bond between them was just as strong though. A bond of friendship forged by the trials of near-death-experiences, demon-hunting, a visit to a hell, as well as living together and learning from each other for several weeks on end.

Everyone who knew Annie and Charlie and had seen them together at any point in time assured him that their friendship was not likely to fail. Sure, they might fall out of touch for a little while, provided nothing life-shattering, painful or terrifying happened to spike the empathetic bond, but when they met up again the initial awkwardness would fade quickly.

And their mystical-empathetic connection would help too. It wasn't like they'd really need to talk about their emotions. They might have to _explain_ said emotions from time to time, but they'd already know what each other was feeling all the time. But they also wouldn't be able to lie, which should be a good thing, he hoped.

Yes, he missed her. And he worried for her. But he knew they'd meet again. And when they did, he'd undoubtedly get to meet her friends and set the record straight. Until then, he just had to be patient. Get on with his life, help when and where he could, and live.

They'd meet again.

Eventually.

* * *

**End of **_**Epilogue: The First Call**_**.**

* * *

_**The End of **_

_**Mathematics & Magic – Part I**_

**First Meeting**

By Jess S

**

* * *

**

AN: I do realize that the epilogue is longer than some of the chapters, but I decided against cutting it up and making it another chapter and the last scene the epilogue on the basis that the story itself is Charlie and Buffy meeting, so the body of the story is about their time together, not apart. If enough people protest, I might change it. I might not. (Honestly, at the moment I'm more concerned about getting on to the next story in the series. Especially since the story that I actually planned this whole series around is the fifth or sixth story in the series now. I think.)

**Some notes from within the chapter itself:**

**(1) & (3) – Superintendent Mark Williamson and Assistant Superintendent 'Mr. Walters' are obvious original characters that I pulled out of nowhere. Also, I did do a little bit of research into the Education System in the state of California, but I really have no idea how the administration system works. Still, I'm hoping that what I threw together makes sense. **

**(2) "Armin" Snyder – To my knowledge, Joss never gave Principle Snyder a first name, so I just used the first name of the actor who portrayed him, Armin Shimerman.**

**Anyway, I hope everyone liked the epilogue and the story as a whole. **

**Happy Holidays! :-D**

**Bye!**

**Jess S**

**

* * *

**

NEXT:

_**A Call Away**_

_**Part II in Mathematics & Magic**_

By Jess S


End file.
